Saving the World
by Obitoswag
Summary: Naruto returns from an extended four year training trip with Jiraiya. The Akatsuki have nearly completed their preparations and the Fourth Shinobi War is almost upon them. Naruto's return to Kohona brings some shocks, for both him and his friends. How powerful has Naruto become over the four years and is it enough? Strong Naruto Naru/Saku pairing
1. Chapter 1 - Homecoming

**AN: Hi guys, this is my first attempt at writing ANYTHING, let alone a fanfiction. So any constructive criticism, (and of course praise=P), is definitely welcomed. I really hope you can leave a review telling me of what you think. Anything I've stuffed up or if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask ^.^**

It was a pleasantly cool morning as two figures trudged along the forest road to Kohona. They walked one behind the other, both with their heads down in deep thought.

The figure up in front was a tall, well-built man with a long mane of spiky white hair with a horned hitai-ate strapped to his forehead. The amount of baggy clothing the man had on and the huge scroll attached to his back disguised the fact that he well past the prime years of his life.

The second, shorter figure behind the older man was a teenage boy with radiant blonde, spiky hair, dressed in a long dark grey cloak that hid most of his well-defined body from view since it draped almost to the ground, had long loose sleeves and a high collar.

The exception to this covering was a split that began at the front of the waistline and continued to the bottom of the cloak to give more manoeuvrability to the wearer. The cloak was mostly dark grey apart from an orange trimming around the edges and an orange kanji for 'nine' on the back of the cloak between the shoulderblades.

The young man also carried an unsheathed katana on his right hip. The blade's colour was deep black, an unusual colour for a katana. The sword had no visible guard crosspiece and the hilt was quite thin, only slightly thicker that the actual blade. If the hilt had any design it was hidden by white cloth that was wound tightly the entire way up the hilt. Despite the weapon's odd appearance it was obviously not just an ornament, as edge of the blade was visibly sharp; gleaming silver in stark contrast to the rest of the blade.

The boy's usual bright, cheerful cerulean eyes were clouded as he was currently in deep thought as he plodded along behind his teacher. It had been four years since he had been away from his home Kohona. Four years since he had seen all of his friends and teachers.

He wondered how much everyone had changed and how much stronger everyone was now. He smiled brightly as he thought about how incredible eating ramen from his favourite ramen stand, _Ichirakus, would be when he got back. _

_His smile faded as one name manifested itself inside his head; '____Sasuke__'. He couldn't believe his battle with Sasuke at the Valley of End happened all those years ago. He could still remember the pain of having Sasuke's __**chidori**__ ripping through his chest and also the greater pain of realising that his best friend was actually trying to kill him. _

_The blonde haired boy forced the matter of what to do with Sasuke out of his mind for now, there was nothing he could do about it at the moment. His eyes softened as he thought about reuniting with his other teammate when he got back to Kohona. The __teenage ninja reverted back to his natural cheerful mood, something that usually happened when he thought about his pink-haired __Kunoichi teammate._

_"Naruto!" the white haired man called back to his student, breaking him out of his stupor. "We're about ten minutes away from Kohona, still excited about seeing everyone after four years?" the man said looking back grinning._

_"You bet Ero-Sennin!" said Naruto giving his trademark grin, despite the tumultuous thoughts running around in his head. "I can't wait to see how much everyone's changed over the years."_

_Jiraiya blanched "Even after four years you still can't manage to treat your teacher with respect" said Jiraiya shaking his head in mock depression. "Still, I think they'll be more shocked to see how much you've changed. You're definitely not the same brat you used to be." said the toad Sannin._

_"More than you know Ero-Sennin." chucked Naruto. "I still haven't shown you how much stronger I've become in the last year training with Uncle Bee."_

_Jiraiya's smile faltered as he thought about the past year. When Jiraiya had taken Naruto away for a long term training journey, he originally envisioned it taking about three years so Naruto would be ready to at least survive beinh hunted by the Akatsuki. Then near the end of the three year stint Jiraiya was informed by Kohona's Hokage, Tsunade the Slug Sannin, to leave Naruto under the tutelage of Kumo's jinchuriki, Killer Bee, and come back to Kohona. Naruto was only told the basic reasoning of this decision; so Bee could teach Naruto to control and, if possible, work alongside the Kyuubi to increase his power. However this was more wishful thinking as no-one really expected the Kyuubi to ever be accept anyone enough to lend them it's power, let alone work along side someone. _

_However, there was another reason the Hokage wanted Naruto to stay away from civilisation, train and be hidden for another year that Naruto didn't know about, and it was that reason that caused Jiraiya's smile to falter. It was well known that the organisation Akatsuki was after the jinchuriki's for the tailed beasts that were inside them. Tsunade had known that if Naruto knew that his jinchuriki friend Gaara was under immediate threat he would rush to help Gaara. Since Naruto himself was now under constant threat now from the Akatsuki and was not actually powerful or reliable enough after three years, letting Naruto get into a confrontation with the criminal organisation was an unacceptable risk. _

_While Naruto knew that the Akatsuki was going to going after the jinchurikis eventually, he was told a lie by Jiraiya that he had another year to train before the Akatsuki made their move so he would be content to stay training with Bee and stay out of the way where he couldn't be found and captured. _

_Jiraiya was deeply saddened that he was forced to lie to his favourite student, but he understood the reasoning behind it and agreed it was necessary for Naruto's safety. So Killer Bee had been sent from Kumo to train Naruto in the wilderness to help him ccommunicate and control his tailed beast for a year. Jiraiya had now returned to Naruto one year after leaving him with Bee to take him back to Kohona._

_'A lot of things have happened that Naruto doesn't know about. I wonder how he's going to take the news that we lied to him and that we are possibly on the brink of another war?' pondered the toad Sannin sadly. 'And I'd really hate to be the person that has to break it to him that Gaara has been killed.'_

_Jiraiya and Naruto finally reached the huge wooden gates of Kohona after their long journey. Naruto looked up at the monolithic entrance and smiled,_

_"Ahhh this brings back some memories!" exclaimed Naruto as he surveyed the village from outside the entrance._

_"Ahaha you're sounding like an old man Naruto, you're not old enough to feel nostalgic." laughed Jiraiya._

_Naruto scowled at his teacher as they walked through into Kohona, "Shut it you super pervert, at least you got to come back home after three years not four." _

_Izumo and Kotetsu were the chuunin that were 'guarding' the entrance into Kohona as the bickering teacher and student walked into the village. Izumo was woken out of his lazy stupor as he recognised one of the figures walking past._

_"Hey Kotetsu! Wake up! Isn't that Jiraiya-sama the Toad Sannin?" Izumo said to his partner, shaking his shoulder._

_"Ughh what…Oh crap yeah it is, but who's the guy walking next to him?" muttered a still drowsy Kotetsu. _

_"I don't know, but his spiky blonde hair is familiar…Oh my god is it..." began Izumo._

_"Yep it's him." interrupted a grinning Naruto who had overheard Izumo's last sentence as he walked past. "How've you guys been without me running around causing havoc?"_

_"I'll be honest it's been a lot more boring since you left." said a smiling Kotetsu. "Who would've thought I'd miss you pulling all your stupid pranks?"_

_"Agreed" said Izumo who was still slightly shell-shocked at the sudden re-appearance of the blonde boy. "You've grown a lot Naruto, you're not a little brat anymore. Nice sword and get up by the way."_

_Naruto smiled, "Yeah I've definitely changed a bit, and thanks, you think I look more mysterious now?" said Naruto as he drew his cloak around him and pulled a scarily accurate expression of a look that a certain S-Class Uchiha criminal favours. _

_"Still the same Naruto I see" chuckled Kotetsu, "It's good to see you haven't changed that much."_

_"Ehehe yep I'm still the same lovable prankster I always was, just stronger." said a grinning Naruto scratching his head. "Well I better get going, I have to report to Granny. See ya!" Naruto waved as he jogged off to catch up with Jiraiya._

_"Well that was a surprise." Said an amused but bewildered Izumo as he looked on after Naruto as he walked off further into the village._

_"Yes, but a nice one. He's changed a lot over the years, I wonder how his friends are going to react." said Kotetsu as he smiled._

_Naruto's head was turning different directions so fast as he looked at everything in the village he looked like he was shaking his head._

_"Calm down gaki you'll have time to see everything again soon." Chuckled Jiraiya. "Plus you don't want to look uncool in front of your new admirers do you?" as he noticed that quite a few of the girls they were walking past were giving Naruto a thorough looking over and were blushing slightly._

_"Come on Ero-Sennin I'm sure they're just curious about me because of my clothes." said Naruto as he scratched the back of his head, embarrassed. _

_Jiraiya guffawed, "I'm sure you haven't really noticed since you've been away from society for nearly four years, but you've physically matured a lot gaki. I expect you'll be getting quite a bit more female attention from now on. Maybe your beloved 'Sakura-chan' will take notice of you now." said Jiraiya slyly as he nudged Naruto with his elbow._

_Naruto looked away. "Yeah whatever. She was deeply in love with Sasuke when I left and I'm sure as hell that hasn't changed. Let's just hurry and report to Granny." said Naruto as he picked up his walking pace._

_Jiraiya noticed his student's sudden change in mood. "I guess some things don't change." sighed Jiraiya under his breath as they approached the Hokage tower._

_Tsunade the Slug Sannin, the current Hokage of Kohona, smacked her head on her desk hard enough that any normal person would have been knocked out. She'd come into her office this morning to find Shizune stacking about ten trees worth of paperwork on her desk. It had been just over an hour of stamping forms and signing papers and the pile of paperwork hadn't seemed to have diminished at all. _

_'Damn that gaki and Jiraiya for convincing me to take this job' thought Tsunade sourly. 'I knew I was going to regret it, but that damn Naruto was so convincing'. _

_Her eyes softened as she thought of the blonde ninja. She missed him more than she let on to anyone; he brought a certain light to her day that made her life that much more bearable. She didn't realise that most people that knew Naruto felt the same way. She was just about to start another gruelling session of paperwork when Shizune burst through her office door out of breath but smiling._

_"You have visitors Tsunade-sama!" panted Shizune._

_"Hmm why the rush Shizune, and why are you smiling so much?" asked Tsunade curiously._

_"__Someone's__ returned from their training trip." Said Shizune still smiling. "I'll go and bring them in now."_

_'Returned from a training trip? Who's….' Tsunade froze as she realised who the mysterious visitors must be. _

_As she came to this conclusion Naruto and Jiraiya came into the room, Naruto with a big smile on his face. "Hey Granny it's been a while." said Naruto cheerfully as he walked in. _

_'Naruto..' Tsunade had a trace of tears in her eyes as she walked out from behind her desk to embrace the young man. _

_Naruto accepted the hug still smiling. He had missed Tsunade as much as he had his friends while he was away; she was a makeshift grandmother despite her appearances as far as he was concerned. Tsunade pulled out of the embrace and held Naruto at arm's length. _

_"Kami you've grown Naruto!" exclaimed Tsunade taking in the little-boy-turned-man in front of her. "Everyone's going to be in for a shock when they see you." she smirked._

_Naruto blushed slightly and looked away as Jiraiya laughed, "He already caused quite a stir with the ladies down in the village when we walked though. To anyone that doesn't know him he must look quite mysterious."_

_"I'm sure" said Tsunade as smiled and went to sit back down at her desk. Her smile faltered slightly as she thought about having to fill Naruto in with the information he had missed while training, including the information that had been kept secret from him._

_Tsunade shook her head slightly to dissipate her thoughts. 'There's time enough for that later. Nothing major is happening soon so there's no need to ruin the day for everyone by telling him now'._

_"So are you just going to stand there or do you mind filling me in on what you've been up to for the past four years?"_

_Sakura was having a pretty uneventful morning so far. She'd woken up and immediately looked at the picture of the old Team 7 she had on her dresser, just like she did every single morning. She sighed looking at both Naruto and Sasuke, wishing things were simple and happy as they were back then._

_Instead of gazing at Sasuke like she had for the first few years of her teammates leaving the village, she found her eyes lingering on Naruto. She had thought it was proof of how much she loved Sasuke by how much she missed him when he left, but she realised that now she missed Naruto even more. Sakura still hadn't figured out what this meant._

_Naruto had always been a constant of life for her, she'd never worried that one day he'd be gone. When she found out that he was leaving for three years to train she'd never thought how much of an impact him being gone would have on her. _

_After about two years of Naruto being away it was like a light had gone out inside her. The only thing that kept her motivated was the fact that she thought Naruto was coming back in one more year. When she found out he was staying away for at least another year to train she broke down crying, in her room of course; she didn't want anyone to think she was weak, everyone else missed him too. She felt so alone with both of her __teammates gone. She didn't feel she had anyone to really talk to about anything with. The 'incident' with Sasuke when her retrieval team tried to take him back to Kohona two months ago was still troubling her and had increased her depression. Sakura shook her head violently, she knew thinking back to what had happened when she confronted her crush would only lead to more tears._

_It had been four years now since Naruto had left and Sakura was still hoping each day that this was the day that he came back. She never would have thought it before, but she missed his goofy smile, his laugh and his never-back-down attitude. She missed the happiness he brought to the village and to her. _

_Sakura forced herself to block out the depressing thoughts and focus on her duties. She had been burying herself in her training with Tsunade more than usual this last year. Tsunade guessed correctly that this was to take her mind off Naruto. _

_At the moment Sakura was on her way to see Tsunade so she could pick up some advanced sealing scrolls to store various medicines in for long missions. She knew that with Akatsuki's plans were coming to a head that there was inevitably going to be fights that Naruto was involved in and she wanted to make sure that she wouldn't be a burden to him. _

_As she entered the Hokage tower she blushed slightly as she realised she actually wanted to impress Naruto when he got back, something she'd never even thought of doing before he left. She shook that line of thinking out of her head before she confused herself and continued making her way to Tsunade's office._

_"I already know most of what happened for the first three years, I want to know what training you did over the past year!" said Tsunade quite irritably. _

_"Ehh sorry Baa-chan I haven't even told Ero-sennin about what I learnt with Uncle Bee. I guess I'll show everyone some of what I can do after I've met up with everyone again and everything's calmed down a bit." said Naruto apologetically._

_To be honest Naruto was quite hesitant about telling anyone just exactly what he could do now, let alone showing them. The fact is that fact he had gotten stronger. A lot stronger. Naruto, while totally confident in his new found power, was still quite amazed at just how much he had improved over the last year. He knew that once he demonstrated his strength everyone, especially Jiraiya, would be wanting an explanation of how the hell he'd done it.  
_

_Naruto chuckled internally, 'Now __that__ is going to be an interesting conversation' he thought. _

_Tsunade was just about to retort when Shizune opened the office door and popped her head in grinning. "Another visitor for you Tsunade-sama." she said, giving Tsunade a wink._

_"Shizune seems to be in a good mood today." commented Naruto dryly. He eyes then widened as he heard a familiar voice that belonged to a familiar body coming through the door._

_"Tsunade-sama I really need those sealing scrolls now because I'm goin..." Sakura began as she walked into the room and then stopped dead in her tracks as she saw the people in it. _

_Naruto by this point had turned around to face the door and was staring wide eyed at his teammate as she came though into the office. _

_He had thought she was gorgeous before but he never imagined how much better looking she could have become over the four years he had been away. _

_Her young teenage body she had had when he left had been transformed into a killer body of a young adult. She had gotten taller as well, obviously, but Naruto hadn't expected her to look so grown up. He dragged his eyes away from her uncovered, shapely legs and her well-proportioned chest to her face. He almost immediately lost himself in her amazingly deep jade eyes, which were by now almost popping out of their sockets. Her hair had been kept short like it had been before, and her beautiful face was still the way that he remembered it. His heart actually ached as he was reminded of how much he had missed her as he stared at her older yet incredibly familiar face._

_Sakura's brain was switching between 'holy-shit-heart-beating-200-times-a-second' and 'complete-shutdown' mode. _

_'Oh my god he's back.' Was the one phrase repeating itself constantly through her head._

_Once she had somewhat gotten over her initial shock she began drinking up everything about his appearance. While his cloak and sword were the first things that caught her eye, she was immediately distracted by how much he had changed physically. _

_He was now at least a head higher than her and his radiant blonde hair was now a bit longer, hanging down halfway to his shoulders and the fringe flopping over his forehead nearly covering his eyebrows. She blushed lightly looking at his tanned face, admitting that her former small, cherubic team-mate had grown up to be quite hot. Her eyes stared into his and she had to hold back tears at the sight of those achingly familiar cerulean orbs. _

_'He's really back...'_

_Naruto now had a bigger smile on his face than he had had in years. He took a step towards Sakura as he started their first conversation in four years._

_"Hey Sakura you..OOF!" Naruto had the air knocked out of him as Sakura bowled into his chest wrapping him up in a tight hug. Naruto was completely shocked as Sakura had never iniatiated a hug with him before. However he found that he immensely enjoyed the feeling and definitely wasn't going to complain._

_"Sakura.." he began. _

_"You were supposed to come back after three years you idiot!" Sakura choked out as she buried her face into his shoulder and started crying uncontrollably, releasing all of the emotion she had kept bottled up inside her over the years. Her crying was the result of a mixture of relief, sadness, and joy._

_She was immediately enveloped in his warmth Naruto seemed to exude constantly. She was surprised by how comfortable he was to hug as she had never hugged him before. She gripped him tighter as she continued to weep into his shoulder._

_Naruto was still trying to take in that his child-hood crush was actually hugging him, and tightly. Naruto had thought she might be a bit glad to see him after all this time but he never imagined this kind of reaction. He was touched by how much she had obviously missed him, so he decided he could be a bit more honest with her about how he felt as well. He returned the embrace, hoping Sakura couldn't feel how hard his chest was pounding, wrapped her up tight and leant close to her ear._

_"I know, I'm sorry. I missed you." Naruto murmured._

_He felt Sakura nodding into his shoulder as she wasn't up to talking yet, but Naruto understood that she felt the same way. Jiraiya and Tsunade looked at the two friends smiling._

_'At least Sakura will be happy again now.' thought Tsunade happily._

_'Kami Sakura grew up quickly.' thought Jiraiya while grinning lecherously. 'Naruto's probably having the time of his life.'_

_The two members of Team 7 finally broke the hug, both secretly reluctant to do so, and moved to stand at attention next to each other. Tsunade noticed that Sakura wasn't the only one who was trying subtly to dry their eyes. _

_"Well I'm sure that you two want to catch up and that Naruto wants to go and meet up with everyone again so why don't you both have the day off from your duties?" Tsunade asked still smiling._

_"That would be great Granny you're the best!" Naruto said with his trademark thumbs up pose._

_Tsunade's eyebrow twitched slightly at Naruto's nickname for her but decided to let it go for now. "Still haven't changed that much gaki. Go on then go and find your friends, and I'll be looking forward to seeing what you can do later."_

_Naruto smirked as he left the office with an under the breath parting quip, "I hope you're ready for it." _

_As Sakura walked out of the Hokage Tower with Naruto she was unconsciously swinging her arms as she walked and had a slight bounce in her step. She felt better than she had in years and she turned her head slightly to glance at the reason for her happiness. Even though she would be the first to admit that before Naruto left he wasn't exactly the least confident person out there, in fact he was a bit over-confident at times, he looked even surer of himself now. She noticed however that there was a slight change in his confidence from four years ago and wondered what it was. As they entered the village district she realised what it was; looking at Naruto she totally believed he could back up his over-confidence. _

_'What happened to you over these 4 years Naruto?' Sakura wondered to herself while still gazing at her transformed friend._

_Naruto looked at Sakura, "Well I guess you'll have a better idea than me of where everyone hangs out now. You know where they would be?"_

_Sakura was a bit startled and embarrassed as she thought Naruto had possibly caught her gazing at him, "What? Umm well we could try some food places. Knowing Chouji he's probably dragged at least one person with him for an early lunch." Sakura said with a grin._

_Naruto smiled, "Looks like Chouji hasn't changed then."_

_It was pure luck that this morning was the morning that most of the members of the Rookie 11 that were home in Kohona had chosen to meet up and have brunch. Chouji had managed to convince Ino, TenTen, Neji, Lee, Kiba and Hinata to have it at his favourite barbeque joint. After stuffing themselves they had just walked out of the shop and onto the street when Kiba noticed Naruto and Sakura walking down the street towards them._

_"Hey look guys its Sakura, wait who's the blonde haired dude she's walking with…Oh shit is that..Naruto?!" Kiba exclaimed, pointing at the Team 7 members._

_The whole group rushed forward to get a better look at the two friends approaching them._

_"Kami I think your right Kiba." breathed Ino as she squinted at Naruto. "But if it's him he's definitely grown a bit." Even from a distance Naruto was obviously a head or so taller than Sakura._

_Hinata almost fainted on the spot seeing that her crush had returned. 'What in the world am I going to say to him?' Hinata thought, panicked._

_"Come on guys lets go and say hi, it's been a while." said Chouji grinning. _

_Naruto and Sakura were having an enjoyable conversation as they walked through the village. Well, more of a one-sided conversation, as Sakura pretty much the only one talking; filling Naruto in on what he had missed while he had been gone. Sakura felt a slight pang in her chest as she remembered the orders that Tsunade had given everyone regarding Naruto. _

_All Naruto's friends, teachers and peers were told not to tell Naruto about any of the events regarding the Akatsuki that had occurred over the last year. Everyone was aware now that Naruto thought the Akatsuki were still waiting to make their move. Tsunade wanted to be the one to tell him at the right time after he returned. Sakura knew that Naruto was going to take the news about Gaara's passing quite hard, especially the fact that he had not been told about it._

_Sakura was distracted from these thoughts as she noticed the group of friends almost stampeding past everyone on the street as they pushed their way towards Naruto and her._

_"Naruto look everyone's coming to see you!" Sakura exclaimed._

_Before Naruto could reply, the group of friends suddenly appeared in front of them._

_"Naruto! Is that you?" asked an excited Kiba slightly breathlessly._

_Naruto turned his head to his fellow ninja and flashed them a trademark grin. "The one and only! How've you guys been without me? You've all changed so much!"_

_Ino, TenTen and Hinata blushed slightly as they took in Naruto's appearance and saw his handsome face. It was impossible to see most of Naruto's form__, his tightly muscled body was hidden from view by his cloak, but he was obviously quite broad shouldered and muscular. _

_Ino was the most shocked out of the three girls; she had never thought of Naruto as someone who was good looking or even cute before. She had seen him as a friend and nothing else. She now saw with him grown up and not wearing his stupid orange jumpsuit he was quite a hunk. _

_'He's even better looking than Sasuke now!' thought Ino in amazement._

_"You've grown up as well Naruto. You're pretty much the tallest person out of group now!" said Chouji happily._

_"Mmm yeah growing up was definitely a good thing for you." said Ino, still looking Naruto up and down as TenTen giggled._

_"Right back at you Ino." replied Naruto while gazing at Ino appreciatively, particularly her bare midriff and long, uncovered legs. While Naruto only had eyes for Sakura before he left on his training trip, he admitted (to himself) that Ino was neatly as pretty as Sakura. Her beauty had increased ten-fold over the time he had been gone and he was going slightly red as he continued to stare at the voluptious girl in front of him. Sakura felt a slight twitch in her stomach as she saw the way Naruto was looking at Ino, although she didn't understand why. Why should she care what Naruto thought of other girls?_

_"H-How long have you been back Naruto-kun?" stuttered a still blushing Hinata._

_"I just got back this morning actually. I met Sakura in the Hoka-" began Naruto before a green spandex wearing young man vaulted over everyone and interrupted him by landing in front of him._

_"Yosh! Welcome back Naruto! You must agree to have a youthful reunion spar with me right now to celebrate your home-coming!" pronounced a beaming Lee, giving his 'nice-guy' pose._

_"Ehh sure thing Lee, I see you haven't changed a bit." said a slightly stunned Naruto._

_"Yosh, I am still as youthful as ever!" said Lee still grinning._

_Neji stepped forward smiling, "While Lee's way of asking was a bit unorthodox, I agree with him. I think it would be interesting to see how much you have improved after your training trip. I could use a good sparring session anyway."_

_"Knowing Naruto he probably has at least a few amazing new techniques he wants to show off." chuckled Kiba. "Nice sword by the way."_

_Naruto grinned, "Well I suppose I can humour you guys then. I guess it'd be nice to have a good morning warm-up."_

_Sakura perked up at a thought hit her, "Well we're in luck since Team 7's old training ground is close to where we are now." She said with a smile._

_Naruto laughed, "Well this is going to bring back some memories. Come on then everyone lets go now since Lee is so desperate."_

_Naruto was finding it hard to stop smiling. 'It's amazing how good it feels to see everyone again. Things are just like how they were before I left.' He thought happily as the group meandered to the training ground._

_News of the energetic blonde's arrival had travelled quickly. A certain man with a mask covering the bottom half of his face and a _hitai-ate covering his left eye had decided to see for himself if the news was just a rumour by scouting the village to see if he could find his old student.

Within a few minutes of jumping across rooftops Kakashi spotted the group of Naruto's friends walking towards the entrance of training ground 7. He saw a cloaked, blonde haired young man in the group walking next to Sakura and smiled under his mask as guessed it could only be one person.

Kakashi shushined from the rooftop he was on to appear in front of the walking group. Kakashi noticed that everyone apart from Naruto jumped at his sudden appearance.

"How's it going Naruto?" said Kakashi with his trademark eye-smile.

Naruto stepped forward grinning, "I knew you had to show up at some point Kakashi-sensei! Still haven't taken the mask off?"

"No not yet." said Kakashi pleasantly. "There's quite a few things I want to ask you about, including about how much power you've gained from your training trip, but it looks like your busy with your friends now so I'll find you later."

_"You're in luck Kakashi-sensei, we're just on our way to have a friendly spar. Why don't you come and watch?" Naruto said._

_Kakashi gave another eye-smile, "That would be great. I'll just quickly grab something to eat and bring it back here to watch." Kakashi replied before disappearing with another shushin. _

_"Well here we are." announced Sakura as the group walked into the training ground. "Makes you feel nostalgic doesn't it Naruto? This place hasn't changed a bit."_

_Naruto was indeed feeling nostalgic at that moment looking around at the familiar surroundings. He felt a pang in his chest as he remembered the days that he, Sakura and Sasuke had trained here all just over four years ago. His head lowered slightly as he began thinking about Sasuke and what he could be doing now. _

_Sakura noticed Naruto's change in demeanour and immediately understood what he must be thinking about._

_"Ok then!" she said quite loudly trying to brighten Naruto up. "Naruto and Lee are you guys ready to get started?"_

_"I'm ready anytime" said Naruto, confidently smiling._

_"YOSH! I've waited a long time for this Naruto! I will show you the results of my endeavours to become stronger!" pronounced Lee as he leapt to the middle of the open field._

_"Make sure not to tire each out too much." Said Neji as everyone started moving off to the side of the field to avoid getting caught in the crossfire. "I still want to have a spar with Naruto afterwards."_

_"Actually, me too." piped up Kiba with a grin. "I wanna show you what I can do now aswell."_

_"Well if you three all want to fight me I've got a better idea." replied Naruto casually. "How about you all fight against me at the same time?"_

_There was silence from everyone as their brains took in what Naruto had proposed. At first they thought they had heard him wrong. How could he want to fight Lee, Neji and Kiba at the same time? Did he want to get pummelled to a pulp on his first day back in Kohona?_

_"Umm Naruto I hope your joking." Said Sakura, laughing nervously. "Because otherwise I think that's being a tad over-confident, even for you. Neji, Lee and Kiba have got seriously stronger since you left. Neji is a jounin now!"_

_"That's good, the stronger you guys are the more fun it'll be!" Naruto said grinning while walking out into the centre of field._

_Neji coughed, "I agree with Sakura, Naruto. Three versus one probably isn't a good idea, you could get seriously hurt."_

_"Who knows, I might last longer than you're expecting." said Naruto, smiling nonchalantly. _

_Naruto could see everyone wasn't convinced from the uncertain looks on their faces. Naruto sighed, "Look guys, if when we spar it looks like I'm in trouble you can stop ok? Come on I thought you guys wanted to spar, not getting scared are we?" Naruto teased._

_Kiba started making his way with Neji to join Lee and Naruto in the middle of the field. "Fine Naruto if this is what you want. Don't blame us if you have to give up just after we start." said Kiba with a grin._

_Naruto grinned in return, "I guess we'll find out won't we?" he said, as they all stood ready to fight._

_Sakura sighed and shook her head exasperatedly as she watched the scene unfold in front of her. 'Kami Naruto, it's just like you to pick off way more than you can chew in your first fight back, even if it isn't a real one. I'm probably going to have to spend an hour healing you by the end of this!'_

_Kakashi chose that moment to return with three dango sticks in his hand. He opted to stay unnoticed in a tree overlooking the field as he didn't want to share his treat. Plus he got a better view from up here. Kakashi's eyes widened as he took in the scene in front of him. _

_'It looks like Naruto is going to spar all three of them at once, is he really that sure of himself? He can't be that much of an idiot to think those three haven't improved a lot since four years ago. What is he up to...' Kakashi thought._

_He was interrupted from his thoughts by the arrival of Jiraiya and Tsunade. Kakashi stared at them with a sweatdrop, "This tree is getting kind of crowded." he muttered._

_Jiraiya chuckled, "Well we didn't want to miss out on see Kohona's most unpredictable ninja in his first fight back. Even I don;t know what he's capable of now, I haven't been with him for the past year." Jiraiya said._

_"Shush you two they're about to start!" said Tsunade irritably. "I only have an hour before I have to get back to the office."_

_Back down on the field, Sakura, Ino, TenTen and Chouji were anxiously waiting for the boys to start their fight. Sakura was slightly tenser than the other; she didn't want Naruto to make a fool out of himself in front of everyone. She looked at Naruto and was slightly shocked; he looked completely relaxed, still subtly exuding complete confidence. Her fists were clenched as she waited for someone to make the first move._

_Lee, Neji and Kiba adopted fighting stances while Naruto stood calmly with his long sleeved covered arms hanging loosely by his side._

_Naruto grinned fiercely at his three friends, "Alright, it looks like guys are serious now."_

_He raised a hand beckoning them with a finger, "Come at me!"_

_Deep in a huge, hollowed out cave in an undisclosed location, eight shadowy, holographic figures were standing on the fingertips of a monolithic statue. One of the figures with a ponytail cursed loudly, "For fuck sake! Why did we have to have another meeting so soon? It's not like we've captured another Bijuu yet."_

_A figure that had eyes with ripple patterns in them spoke up, "Quiet Deidara there is an important reason for this meeting."_

_Deidara thought about retorting, then decided not to as it might not be the best thing for his health. The man with the eyes who was obviously the leader spoke up again._

_"We have captured and sealed every Bijuu except for the eight and nine-tails. The eight-tails is still thought to be the hardest to capture as its jinchuurki resides in Kumo. Invading Kumo will be no small task, therefore the eight-tails will be the last Bijuu to capture."_

_The other shadowy visages remained quiet as the ripple-eyed man continued._

_"This means that the nine-tails is now our main target. It has come to our attention that the jinchuuriki has come out of his long time hiding and is currently travelling to Kohona. "_

_The man turned to two of the figures, which of which was carrying a giant sword. "Kisame and Itachi, you are now no longer in charge of capturing the nine-tails. Preparations for our plan need to begin as soon as possible."_

_The man's purple, patterned eyes seemed to glow brighter suddenly._

_"For this reason, I will be the one to capture the nine-tails." _

_**AN: Just to clear some things up if people were wondering; the five Kage summit has not happened yet and the only Akatsuki members that have died are Hidan and Kakuzu. Sasuke's part in this story will be revealed next chapter as well as information on the events that have taken place during the course of Naruto's training trip. Just to remind you that this is my first try at writing ANYTHING, so I would so so so appreciate it if you left a review telling me what you think of the first chapter. Tell me anything I need to fix up or pay attention to in future chapters. I hope this chapter was somewhat enjoyable and the next one will be out very soon. Thanks=]**_


	2. Chapter 2 - Results of Training

**AN:** Well the amount of feedback I got for my first chapter was more than I could have hoped for and I can't thank everyone that reviewed, followed, favourited enough!:) Quite a few people asked questions like I asked them too and I'll answer any now that I can without giving anything away.

**1** – Naruto does not have any Doujustu (eye powers), I think that idea is completely unoriginal, overused and doesn't really make any sense story wise. **Some **of his powers will be shown this chapter, plus the reason behind his strength.

**2** – I'm really sorry but Gaara is dead and staying dead. Gaara's death takes the place of Jiraiya's death in the real story and serves to increase Naruto's determination, motivation and his attitude. I think the death of one a Naruto's precious people was necessary, since it makes him grow up as a person and as a ninja. Details of his death will be either in this chapter or the next chapter.

**3** – Details of Kakuzu and Hidan's fight/death when be released in this chapter or next chapter.

**4** – Again I'm sorry about the italics, I have absolutely no idea why that happened because I double checked the word document and everything was normal=/ If it happens again I'm really sorry and if anyone knows how to fix the problem please tell me.

**5** - A lot of people have been seemingly adamant that harems ruin stories somewhat and make them unmemorable. Thinking about it afterwards I agree, so it will only be a Naruto and Sakura pairing. That's not to say other girls won't take an interest in Naruto^.^

Now onwards to the story, I really hope you guys enjoy it!

_Naruto raised a hand beckoning Neji, Lee and Kiba with a finger, "Come at me!" he shouted with a characteristic grin._

_Sakura drew in a breath as the boys prepared to attack each other, 'Be careful Naruto.' she thought. 'And don't please don't make a fool out of yourself like you used to!' she added hopefully._

_Kakashi, Jiraiya and Tsunade were also waiting with bated breath for the fight to commence. Jiraiya was actually slightly worried for his student. He knew that when he had left Naruto after three years training there was no way Naruto was at a level to take on Neji, Kiba and Lee by himself. Kami even Kakashi would probably have some serious problems taking them all on at once._

_'I hope you know what you're doing Naruto.' thought Jiraiya worriedly. 'I didn't spend three years of my life training you so you could make yourself look like idiot.'_

_The tension on the s__idelines and from the field was__ almost palpable. Then suddenly, as anyone would have expected, Lee made the first move. He exploded from his standing position, hurtling towards Naruto ready to deliver a devastating kick._

_Lee closed the distance between Naruto __and himself __in under a second._

_"__**Konoha Senpu**__!__" yelled Lee as he directed his trademark kick at Naruto's head._

_Naruto's eyes widened imperceptibly as he registered his friend's speed. 'Looks like he has improved quite a bit, but I wouldn't have expected anything else from Lee.' thought Naruto as he watched Lee's foot rocketing towards his head._

_'I guess I'll just dodge their attacks for now.' mused Naruto with a grin as he tilted his head to the side quickly to avoid Lee's kick. 'It'll be fun to see what they can do now.'_

_Instead of getting annoyed at the fact that Naruto had dodged his trademark move with __seemingly no effort, Lee was thrilled._

_"Naruto your speed has increased wonderfully!" Lee exclaimed as he backed away slightly from Naruto to regain his footing. "I think you'll be able to give me a very youthful fight!" Lee said in the same high volume while striking his 'nice-guy' pose._

_Naruto sweat-dropped visibly, "You really haven't changed at all have you Lee?" Naruto __said with a dead-panned expression__._

_"Wrong! I'll show you how much I've changed!" yelled Lee as he charged in for another close combat encounter._

_Lee, not one to hold back, delivered an incredible onslaught of taijustu on Naruto, who amazingly seemed to be able to dodge every single attack without letting a single one touch him._

_From the tree's vantage point Tsunade gasped. "Kami what did you teach him Jiraiya?! He's not even blocking Lee's attacks, he's ducking around every single hit!" Tsunade exclaimed._

_Jiraiya was just as shocked. "Hey I'd love to take the credit for this but he sure as hell wasn't this good at dodging when I left him a year ago." he said._

_Kakashi, meanwhile, had noticed something odd that the two Sannin hadn't picked up on yet. 'What's up with Naruto's chakra?' he thought, puzzled. 'Usually when Naruto fights he billows out his insane chakra like there's not tomorrow. At the moment I can barely feel any coming from him, what's going on?'_

_Down on the sidelines, Ino, Sakura, Chouji and TenTen were all astounded as Lee was completely unable to land a hit on Naruto._

_'I don't know anyone that can dodge Lee's attacks like that!' thought TenTen, wide-eyed. 'Even Gai-sensei has to block Lee's attacks with his own so he can withstand it.'_

_Ino was staring at the blur that was Naruto with a look of admiration. 'So he doesn't just look amazing, he's gotten way better at fighting aswell! I'll have to adjust my 'Top Men Candidates of Kohona Ladder' and put him on it.' she thought with a devilish smile._

_Sakura meanwhile had a warm, satisfying feeling creeping up her body. It took her a moment to realise what it was; pride. 'It looks like you actually do know what your doing Naruto.' she thought with a smile, still staring at Naruto on the field. 'No-one else might think you can win this but I do, I believe in you!'_

_Back on the field Lee had leapt back from Naruto panting heavily._

_"Yosh! You really have gotten faster Naruto, I'm impressed!" said Lee, out of breath._

_Naruto grinned, still looking relaxed and no worse for wear than when the fight started. "Thanks Lee. I can tell you've gotten better as well. The power in your attacks have inreased a lot, they would probably hurt a lot if they hit me!"_

_Lee grinned back, "I'll make sure they hit this time Naruto." he said as he began to unclip his training weights._

_"No Lee you've hogged all the fun so far. It's my turn now!" shouted Kiba as bent down on all four legs next to the now giant Akamaru. Naruto blinked as he took in how large Akamaru had gotten over the years and wondered how the hell he didn't notice it before._

_"__**Gijū Ninpō: Shikyaku no Jutsu**__**!**__"____yelled Kiba in an animalistic voice. Kiba instantly began to develop wolf-like features, namely long claws in the place of his nails. Akamaru disappeared in a puff of smoke and reappeared as an exact clone of the transformed Kiba._

_"I'm not going to even bother using taijustu on you after what I just saw." growled Kiba. "I'm going with the big guns from the beginning! '__**Gatsuuga!**__'"_

_Kiba and Akamaru jumped forward at the stationary Naruto, rotating at such blinding speeds that they looked like two bladed drills._

_Naruto watched the fast approaching __'__drills__'__, contemplating his next move. 'Well I'm pretty bored of dodging__ now; maybe it's time to show off a new technique. I'll have to weaken it quite a bit so I don't hurt anyone too badly. Baa-chan is gonna kill me for messing up the training field as well, oh well.' Naruto thought with a wolfish smile._

Naruto held out one of his hands to the side, forming a claw. A small ball of condensed, spinning, blue chakra appeared in the middle of his palm. Naruto's chakra continued pouring into the tiny ball until the spinning sphere swelled to the size of Naruto's hand. The chakra inside the sphere was so condensed that it was now almost black in colour.

Up in the tree Jiraiya gasped. "That attack kind of looks like a **Rasengan**, but not one I've ever seen before. This must be one of Naruto's new techniques." he said excitedly.

Kiba and Akamaru were only a few metres away from Naruto when Naruto decided to act.

Raising the rotating black sphere above his head, he shouted "**Omoi Rasengan!**" and slammed the condensed ball of chakra into the ground in front of him.

The effect was immediate and devastating. As soon as the ball of chakra hit the ground, a shockwave was sent through the field ripping huge chunks of earth away from around the epicentre of the impact and flinging them outwards with incredible force. Deep cracks snaked out from the impact, causing mini fissures to form randomly across the training field. The entire area around the training field suffered from the shockwave; causing Ino and Chouji to fall over and Jiraiya to nearly fall out of his tree.

Kiba and Akamaru, needless to say, were hit by the full force of the wall of earth and wind and were blown away like feathers. Both of them were forced to transform back into their original forms and crash landed next to the very shocked Lee and Neji who were just regaining their balance.

After a few seconds everything had calmed down and everyone could see the full effects of Naruto's attack. Aside from the various chunks of recently moved earth all over the place, there was a ten metre wide crater where Naruto had slammed his attack down.

Naruto jumped deftly out of the newly made crater and grinned at his opponents. "How was that?" he asked simply.

Everyone, including the spectators, was in varying levels of shock. Jiraiya, Tsunade and Kakashi were shocked that Naruto was able to come up with such a devastating variant of the **Rasengan**, let alone perform it with one hand. Naruto's friends were looking at him with expressions of awe on their face.

Sakura was the first to find her voice. "That was amazing Naruto!" she shouted happily to her teammate. Then her expression changed slightly, "But maybe next time try not to hit _us_ with your attack!" she added peevishly.

Naruto, who was a bit bewildered that Sakura had just openly praised him, scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Ehehe sorry Sakura-chan, I promise it won't happen next time." He said, embarrassed.

"What was that move Naruto?" called out Tenten, voicing the question everyone wanted the answer to. "It was some form of **Rasengan** wasn't it?"

Naruto looked over at Tenten and smiled. "You're right." He called back. "**Omoi Rasengan** takes the same form as a normal **Rasengan**, but I make it by condensing heaps of chakra into the sphere. That makes it incredibly dense and heavy. It takes a bit longer to create than a normal **Rasengan** and uses up a lot more chakra, but it's quite a powerful attack, as you just saw. Then again, I could have put at least twenty times more chakra into it than I did so you haven't really seen it at its best yet." lectured Naruto.

Tenten and the rest of his friends just gaped at what Naruto had said. They didn't even want to think about the destructive capabilities of Naruto's attack if could be twenty times stronger than what they had just seen.

The occupants of the 'spectating tree' listened to Naruto's description of his attack in awe.

"If what he said is true about that technique being capable of being twenty times stronger than his last attack, then it's more powerful than any variants of **R****asengan** that I can use, even in sage mode." Jiraiya said in a slightly shaky voice.

Tsunade nodded her head in amazement. "He seems to have improved exponentially over the last year. What the hell happened while he was training?" she wondered out loud.

Neji and Lee, meanwhile, were quickly formulating a strategy to defeat their orange haired friend.

"It's obvious that we can't hold back at all if we want to have a hope of beating him." stated Neji. "Lee I want you to lose your weights and go as fast as you can to try and knock him around a bit. While you're doing that I'll rush in at any opening and try land a hit on his tenketsu to disable him. Maybe if I get close enough I can hit him with a **Kaiten****.**"

Lee grinned as he removed his weights, creating smaller versions of Naruto's crater where they landed. "I'll make sure I hit him this time, I'm not holding back!" Lee took a fighting stance.

"**Gate of Opening, Open!**" shouted Lee. He was immediately surrounded in waves of green chakra and his skin started darkening.

Naruto eyes widened at the sight of Lee opening the first four gates and Neji calling upon his **Byakugan **blood limit.

'I guess they've realised they have to go all out against me. Lee's going to be a hell of a lot faster now. I'll have to put a bit of effort in now I guess.' thought Naruto.

Naruto felt a stirring within his mind. "_**Why don't we teach these brats what real speed looks like**__**?**__**"**_ said a powerful voice inside Naruto's head. _**"I'm getting tired of **__**watching you play**__** around**__** with these weaklings."**_

Naruto chuckled internally 'Calm down Kyuubi, those are my friends you're talking about.' Naruto replied. 'But I do agree with you about stepping it up a notch. I've noticed Ero-sennin, Baa-chan and Kakashi-sensei are watching this fight. It'll be nice to show off a bit in front of everyone.'

"_**Tch, just get on with it then. It's not like you have to ask to borrow chakra **__**anymore."**___The Kyuubi muttered.

'You're right, but admit it; it's so much easier like this.' replied Naruto. Ending the internal conversation, Naruto concentrated his chakra and his eyes began to change colour from his usual cerulean blue to a bright orange.

Kakashi was the first to notice that Naruto's eye colour had changed since he was already studying Naruto with his **Sharingan**.

'It's obvious that he's starting a technique or something now because of his change in eye colour, but I still can barely feel any chakra coming from him. He obviously still has a lot of chakra; his last attack proved that. So why does it feel like he's only got as much chakra as a mediocre genin?' Kakashi thought, perplexed.

With Kiba not really hurt but still completely disorientated, Lee and Neji were ready to perform their last all-out assault on Naruto. Naruto's eyes seemed to be slightly glowing bright orange now, something that Neji picked up with the aid of his **Byakugan**. Curiosity piqued from seeing Naruto's odd chakra, Neji used his blood limit to look at Naruto's chakra system. He gasped at what he saw.

"Naruto!" Neji exclaimed. "Your chakra is—"

"I know Neji." Naruto cut him off. "But I'd prefer to tell everyone about it in detail after the fight is over if that's OK?"

"S-sure" Neji stuttered, still trying to make sense of what he had seen inside Naruto.

Lee had now had enough of waiting and was raring to go. "Neji! I'll take the lead, try and find an opening." Lee said before taking off so fast from his standing position it looked to everyone watching that he had teleported away.

Almost everyone. Naruto grinned as he saw Lee leave an indentation in the ground where he took off from and rocketed towards him. 'It's time to let loose a bit.' thought Naruto with a foxy grin.

Lee smiled as he threw a fist at Naruto's still form. 'Looks like you can't dodge this one Naruto!' Lee thought victoriously.

Suddenly, as Lee's first was a few inches away from Naruto's face, Naruto suddenly vanished and reappeared a few metres away from where he had been a millisecond beforehand.

Lee's eye's widened to the size of dinner plates. Even with most of his gates opened and all of weights off, he hadn't even seen Naruto when he had dodged his fist.

Lee's turned his head in shock to Naruto's new position. "W-What was that? I didn't even so you move!" Lee said in a bewildered voice.

Naruto was about to reply when suddenly Neji's voice interrupted him. "Now Lee, together!" shouted Neji from behind Naruto. "**Eight Trigrams One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms!**" he roared as both he and Lee converged on Naruto from front and behind.

Even though Lee was a constant blur of motion and Neji's one hundred and twenty eight separate thrusts were indistinguishable to the naked eye, they were not nearly fast enough to land a hit. Naruto was moving so fast dodging his two opponents that there were multiple after images of him left behind from his movements. Naruto was 'teleporting' to different locations so fast that nobody watching could determine where he actually was.

Finally after about ten seconds of the inhuman display of speed, Naruto appeared about ten metres away from Lee and Neji, who were panting heavily with their hands on their knees.

On the sidelines everyone was speechless yet again. No one had ever seen speed like was Naruto had just displayed. Everyone in the Kohona 11 was adamant that Lee was the fastest in their group by miles, and Naruto had just put Lee's unhindered speed to shame badly.

The spectators in the tree were just as gobsmacked, but for another reason.

"That speed.." began Kakashi. "I haven't seen that kind of speed since—"

"Since Minato's Flying Thunder God Jutsu." finished a wide eyed Jiraiya. "Minato needed to use marked kunai to use that ability though. Naruto just seems to be teleporting constantly, and to wherever he wants to. After this fight I definitely need to have a talk with him."

"How…the hell….can you move so fast…" panted Neji.

Naruto grinned nonchalantly. "It's one of my original and favourite techniques: **Shidenho**. Like the name says, it allows me to take a step of varying distance in a 'flash'". Naruto explained. "I concentrate my chakra everywhere in my body then push out large amounts of chakra from my feet to blast me off to wherever I want to land. The 'stepping' part happens incredibly quickly, that's why it probably looked to you guys like I was teleporting. It does use up huge amounts of chakra though so I tend not to use it all the time."

"It was amazing Naruto, there's no way I could possibly keep up with that kind of speed." admitted Lee. Lee's eyes widened as Naruto suddenly disappeared. Lee heard a voice from behind him.

"I think it's time to end this spar then guys, it was fun while it lasted." said Naruto from behind Lee. Before Lee could react, Naruto drove a fist into Lee's stomach, who careened into Neji who was standing next to him. Both boys landed next Kiba who was still kind of out of it.

Seeing the spar end, Sakura, Ino, Tenten, Chouji and Hinata rushed out onto the field to check up on Naruto's mildly injured opponents and to congratulate the completely unscathed Naruto.

Tenten ran over to Lee and Neji while Hinata ran to check on Kiba. They both gave thumbs up signals to tell everyone that they were OK. The first person to make it to Naruto was Sakura.

"Naruto..that was amazing." said Sakura as she came up to Naruto, blushing slightly. Inwardly she cursed herself. 'Why am I blushing at something like this, is something wrong with me?' she thought.

Naruto scratched the back of his head and smiled back. "Thanks Sakura-chan. That really means a lot hearing you say that." He replied without thinking, instantly freezing as he realised what he had just said unintentionally.

Sakura looked up at Naruto confused. "What do you mean by that?" she asked curiously.

Naruto began to feel more stressed than he had during his spar. "Umm well.." he began, trying desperately to think of something that sounded plausible to cover up his blunder.

Mercifully, he was interrupted by a clapping Jiraiya who was approaching with Kakashi and Tsunade in tow.

"Well Naruto, you definitely have some explaining to do, like how the hell you improved this much in one year!" Jiraiya said somewhat proudly.

Kakashi coughed slightly. "I'd also like to ask you about your chakra Naruto." He said, earning glances of interest from everyone. "Why is it that I can only sense low amounts of chakra coming from you, even when you attack?"

Everyone was looking at Naruto curiously now. Naruto looked down slightly.

"I guess you noticed then." Said Naruto in a low voice.

Sakura looked at Naruto quickly, shocked by how serious he had become all of a sudden. She stared at his face, trying to discern what was wrong.

Naruto himself was feeling a tumult of emotions. He had known that when he returned to Kohona he would have to at some point tell everyone what had happened to him over the past year. Mainly one event that had changed his life for the better.

He did not regret what had happened at all, in fact he was unbelievably happy. But he was still nervous since he didn't know how everyone was going to react to the news. He felt everyone looking at him expectantly. 'Oh well.' He sighed internally. 'No time like the present.'

"OK I guess I might as well tell all you now, you had to find out at some point." Said Naruto as everyone, including Neji, Lee and Kiba, formed a semicircle in front of him, listening attentively.

"I'm taking it you all know about the Kyuubi inside of me, and that it is incredibly powerful but also incredibly hard to control." He got a wave of nods from his audience.

"Now jinchuurikis like me are more powerful the more of their Bijuu's power they borrow. So it stands to reason that if a jinchuuriki can control or work together with their Bijuu then they are going to become incredibly strong.

"During the last year, I have been training with a jinchuuriki from Kumo, Killer Bee. He is amazingly strong because he and his Bijuu work together in perfect harmony and have mutual respect for one another."

"The purpose of me training with Bee was to see if I could learn how to control the Kyuubi a little bit better and use its powers easier. There wasn't really much hope of me being able to achieve the same relationship with the Kyuubi that Bee has with his Bijuu, the Eight-tails. This is because the Kyuubi is known to be so full of hatred that the thought of it working together with someone was an unrealistic dream."

Jiraiya nodded impatiently, he knew everything of what Naruto was telling them already. This was just for the benefit of Naruto's friends.

Naruto suddenly smiled. "So it was a real shock when seven months ago the Kyuubi decided to work together with me and lend its power to me." He said still smiling.

Dead silence was the response Naruto was treated to. At first everyone thought Naruto was joking, but after looking at his serious face they had to face the fact that he was telling the truth.

"So you're telling me.." Jiraiya began. "That the Kyuubi randomly decided to be nice and lend you its power free of charge?" Jiraiya asked incredulously.

"Not exactly." Naruto replied. "He understood that in order for me and him to survive I needed to get stronger. That meant him lending me his powers. Also I made him a promise.." Naruto trailed off.

"What did you promise him Naruto?" Sakura asked gently.

Naruto looked up and continued. "I promised him that I would do my best to understand and cure his hate. I vowed that I would show him that a life of hatred and revenge is just a shell of an existence. No one deserves to live a life like that with no one willing to help them. Then, to show him I was serious I did something a little drastic."

Tsunade cringed as she tried to imagine what it could have been if even Naruto thought it was drastic. "What did you do Gaki?" she asked nervously.

Naruto glanced at her with a determined look on his face, unclipped his cloak from around his waist and lifted his shirt up.

All the girls present instantly blushed heavily as they saw Naruto's tanned, muscle-bound stomach. They couldn't help it as they started to day-dream about Naruto taking off his shirt entirely, and then his pants...

Sakura mentally kicked herself. 'What the hell I am doing, this is Naruto! He's a friend!'

But as hard as she tried she couldn't shake off the feeling of attraction she was having for Naruto with his shirt half off.

The adults, however, had a very different reaction to Naruto lifting his shirt. Although she would never admit it, Tsunade had to hold in a blush when she saw Naruto's abdominals.

'Kami if I was just a bit younger..' she though wistfully. Then her mood changed completely as she noticed what Jiraiya and Kakashi had noticed straight away.

"Naruto the seal for the Kyuubi is gone!" she exclaimed with wide eyes. "Don't tell me you.."

"Yep, I broke the seal keeping the Kyuubi prisoner." Naruto replied calmly, letting his shirt fall back down.

Tsunade gritted her teeth and her hand began to glow slightly green with chakra. "What have you done Uzumaki Naruto you selfish brat!" she yelled as she went to punch him in the head.

Tsunade, and indeed everyone else, was incredibly surprised when Naruto caught Tsunade's chakra infused fist with his bare hand. Naruto looked at her angrily with his bright blue eyes.

"Don't you mean Namikaze Naruto, Hokage-sama?" Naruto said in a quiet voice with a hint of sadness in it.

Naruto's friend's eyes widened at the implications of what Naruto had just said, while the adults were in slight shock that Naruto knew about his heritage. Tsunade was also quite hurt that Naruto had called her by her title, something he never does with anyone he cares about.

"How did you find out about your father Naruto?" Tsunade asked quietly as she pulled her hand away.

"I met him." Naruto said simply. As he saw the unbelieving faces around him he elaborated. "When I tried to unseal the Kyuubi the first time, he appeared. At the time of his death when he sealed the Kyuubi within me, he sealed a portion of his own chakra within the seal. This meant that when the seal was being removed he would appear for a short amount of time. My mother did the same thing as well. She appeared shortly after dad did."

Jiraiya shook his head in amazement. "So Minato and Kushina told you themselves about your heritage?" he asked.

"Yeah, they shouldn't of had to though." replied Naruto with a spark in his eyes. "I wasted precious moments with them trying to come to terms with the fact that I actually had parents that loved me and wanted me to live."

Naruto looked away hiding his face and took a deep breath. When he turned back his eyes were filled with tears.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?!" yelled Naruto at the forlorn figures of Tsunade, Jiraiya and Kakashi.

"I know you knew about my parents, dad told me he taught Kakashi-sensei and that Ero-sennin was his sensei. Why couldn't you have at least told me that I had parents who actually loved me enough to die for me!?" Naruto was trying desperately to stop his tears from falling but he was nearly at the point of breaking.

Sakura was heart was torn watching Naruto. She had never seen her friend this upset before. She started tearing up herself thinking of Naruto as child; socially ostracised with no-one to really want him or care for him. All of Naruto's friends were having similar thoughts and were feeling guilty for not trying to help him more when they were children.

"You didn't have to tell everyone, just me. I could've kept it a secret. Do you know how much of a difference you could have made if you told me my dad was the fourth Hokage?" choked out Naruto. By this point tears were running freely down Naruto's face. "I wasn't as happy as everyone thought I was you know. If I had known who my parents were and that they had loved me it wouldn't have been as bad. I probably wouldn't have thought about ending my-"

He was cut off by Sakura rushing forward and embracing him tightly. Even in his incredibly emotional state Naruto was still taken aback that Sakura had her arms wrapped around him.

"Don't say it Naruto." whispered Sakura, her forehead resting on Naruto's collarbone. "You can be upset and angry. You can cry as much as you want and shout as much as you want. I promise I'll be there for you and help you through it as much as I can. But please don't say things like that ever again. Don't even think about it." Sakura gripped Naruto's cloak and clenched her fists as she tried not to cry, but she couldn't help from sobbing slightly.

"Sakura…" Naruto whispered in a hoarse voice. Then his emotions took over completely and he let himself go. He buried his face in Sakura's neck and began to cry uncontrollably.

He wasn't just crying because of his parents now, he was crying because of what Sakura had just said to him. No-one had ever said anything like that to him before. Sure people had tried to console him when he was younger, but no-one had ever said they would be there for him like she just had.

As he feebly attempted to wrap his arms around her for comfort as he continued sobbing, he realised that his feelings for his teammate had not changed at all; he still loved her immensely. For now though he was too distracted and upset to think about anything like that and he just clung to her like a lifeline, leaning into her.

Sakura felt Naruto starting to go limp and slowly lowered both of them to the ground in a kneeling position, still keeping the embrace strong. Sakura put her hand on the back of Naruto's head and slowly started running her hand through his hair. She whispered senseless calming things to him as uncontrollable sobs racked his body.

Even though Sakura felt terrible for Naruto and how he was feeling, she also felt amazing that she was able to help him like this. In the past it had always been Naruto that had helped her with all of her problems. Now, even though she said what she said and hugged him on instinct, she realised she was helping him now by being there for him. She decided she fully intended to keep the promise of always being there for Naruto when he needs someone.

'It's a promise of a lifetime.' she thought with a smile, remembering the words Naruto said to her all those years ago.

The group of friends and adults watched the tender scene unfold with varying emotions. All of them were happy that Naruto had someone's shoulder to cry on, even though a few of the girls were slightly jealous that it wasn't their shoulder. Jiraiya and Kakashi had sorrowful looks on their faces as they considered their decision not tell Naruto about his parents as a child. Tsunade was almost crying herself think about how Naruto had pretty much admitted he had had suicidal moments as a child.

Neji coughed quietly as to not disturb the Team 7 members on the ground. "I think we should leave them alone for now, we can always talk to Naruto later." He muttered under his breath.

The rest of the group nodded and gingerly walked away from the training field. Kakashi followed suit and walked off in the other direction. Jiraiya followed him until Kakashi stopped at the edge of the training field.

"I know we had our reasons for not telling him." Kakashi murmured without turning around. "And I know those reasons were good reasons. But I wonder if in the end it was worth it."

Kakashi finished his sentence and disappeared in a swirl of leaves. Jiraiya looked up at the sky.

'I'm sorry if I failed you Minato. I'm such a lousy teacher.' He thought as he searched the sky with eyes for something he would never see.

The only person remaining on the field watching the oblivious, crying teammates was Tsunade. She looked at the emotionally ravaged blonde haired boy with pity.

'I'm so sorry Naruto, but it's not going to get easier from now on.' She thought as she turned on her heel and silently stalked off towards her office.

'Tomorrow I'll have to tell him about Gaara and the Akatsuki, it can't wait any longer.'

After about five minutes of crying Naruto had finally settled down and was breathing evenly. Sakura still had him in a hug that she was reluctant to end, which didn't seem to be a problem since Naruto was making no moves to break away.

"Do you feel a bit better now Naruto?" Sakura asked softly.

There was no reply from Naruto, all Sakura could hear from him was his steady breathing.

"Naruto?" she asked again moving his head backwards so she could look at his face.

She grinned slightly as she realised that Naruto had fallen asleep in her arms after his emotional breakdown. Sakura relaxed her grip, which caused Naruto's forehead to rest against her own. Even though Naruto was asleep Sakura still blushed at their close proximity to each other. She stared at his closed eyes and his slightly open mouth and felt something unknown well up inside of her. On an impulse she cupped his face with her hands, tilted her head up and kissed him on the forehead.

She immediately pulled back blushing heavily. 'What the hell?! What made me do that?' Sakura thought wildly.

She relaxed as she looked at Naruto, who was still sound asleep. 'Thank Kami he didn't wake up. That would have been awkward trying to explain that.' She thought, relieved.

Sakura decided that as much as she was enjoying holding Naruto, it was becoming a bit uncomfortable. She slowly moved herself into a sitting position, still holding Naruto up and then lowered Naruto's head into her lap. She twisted Naruto slightly so he was in a comfortable laying position on his back and then began to play his hair again.

'This situation is nothing like what I envisioned happening today.' thought Sakura as she stared at Naruto's now grown up face. 'But for some reason it's made me really happy.'

Sakura smiled, something she had been doing a lot today, and relaxed to enjoy the moment. Within in a few minutes Sakura had fallen asleep sitting up, her hands resting on Naruto's chest, with a smile still lingering on her lips.

**AN:** Phew, that took longer than I thought. I really wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything out this chapter or mess anything up. I know most of you are going to wonder why the hell the issue with Naruto's chakra was not resolved. Don't worry, I definitely haven't forgotten about it. The explanation of Naruto's chakra and the continuation of the explanation about the Kyuubi and Naruto will be in the next chapter. And no, it's not just some unoriginal idea of Naruto having a Kyuubi chakra form like the main story. I'm quite excited to reveal it all, but you'll have to wait for that;) If anyone says that Naruto is OP, all I'll say is that for the role he plays in this story he has to be this strong. If you're wondering what that role is, look around; there's a pretty big clue sitting there. Anyway, I hope you guys at least somewhat enjoyed this chapter, I really hope you can leave a review telling me of whatever you think, it would really help a lot:) Thanks!

**Original Technique List:**

**Omoi Rasengan: **Heavy Spiralling Sphere

**Shidenho: **Flash Step


	3. Chapter 3 - Revelations

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, it belongs to Kishimoto. If I did own it the story wouldn't be nearly as stuffed up.

**AN**: Hey guys I'm REALLY, REALLY sorry about the late update, I just finished one lot of end of year exams at school so I had my hands completely full up until yesterday. I tried to get this chapter out as fast as I could for everyone so I'm sorry for any errors. Please correct me or pull me up on anything you think I've missed.

Thank you SO MUCH to everyone that reviewed and favourited my story! It helps me more than you could imagine. To everyone that reads my story and doesn't leave a review, I implore you to even if it's just to say what I've done wrong. Feedback of any sort helps me so much

Thanks also to 'Shinkuu Arashi' who corrected me on the translation of Naruto's 'Flashstep' technique. It will now be known as '**Shunpo**' NOT '**Shidenho**' from now on. Shinkuu if you could tell me what translator you use that would really help

To answer Cobra0000's question about why Pein has decided that capturing the Kyuubi will be an easier task: his decision was based off my point of view. Yes I know that Kohona is technically the strongest ninja village, but that is the 'war' strength of the village. To someone like Pein, ninjas who are below Kage level are of no matter to him, so the difficulty of capturing Killer Bee would be deemed higher since Pein does not know that Jiraiya is in Kohona and that Naruto has become a lot stronger now. In Kumo they will have to deal with the Raikage and Bee, who WAS recognised as the strongest jinchuuriki (because of the power and relationship he has with his Bijuu). Hope that cleared that up for you

Anyway I hope the story's been enjoyable so far and here's chapter 3 for you!

**Chapter 3**

Revelations

Sakura was woken up by the sounds of bird's chirping loudly nearby. She sat up groggily and looked at up with slitted eyes. The sky was beginning to darken and had a red glow across it, courtesy of the lowering sun on the edge of the horizon.

'Did I sleep all through the afternoon until sunset?' wondered Sakura, still half asleep.

As her body began to come to life she felt a weight on her lap and looked down, forgetting what it was. As soon as she saw Naruto's golden hair memories shot back into her head; Naruto coming back to Kohona, Naruto's spar, him getting upset with Jiraiya, Tsunade and Kakashi for not telling him about his parents and finally herself embracing Naruto and trying to calm him down.

Another memory came back to her as well, the one of her kissing Naruto on his forehead while he was asleep.

Remembering her actions caused her to blush. 'Why did I do that? I've only ever felt like doing that sort of thing to Sasuke. It's not like I could like Naruto, that's just stupid.' Sakura debated inside her head.

'For some reason though at the time, kissing him on the forehead seemed like completely the right thing to do.'

As Sakura was thinking this she stole another look down at still asleep friend. As she was completely awake now her eyes actually registered how Naruto was positioned in her lap, causing most of her body's blood to rush to her face.

In his sleep, or Sakura hoped in his sleep, Naruto had turned over onto his side and nuzzled further into Sakura's lap. This caused Naruto's face to become dangerously close to Sakura's more private area. Plus his arms had risen above his, one fully resting on her thigh and the other one was extended behind Sakura on the ground wrapping around her, giving the impression that Naruto had tried to bring Sakura closer to him in his sleep.

As Sakura's blush lessened somewhat as she realised that there couldn't have been any sexual motive behind his position, she realised that what he was doing was kind of cute. It was like he was scared she was going to leave so he had tried to wrap her up while still lying down.

'Still.' thought Sakura. 'There's no way I'm letting him wake up like this. After training with Jiraiya for three years he probably has enough perverted thoughts running through his head.'

Sakura started to move backwards while gently shifting Naruto off her lap and onto the ground. As she finally got Naruto of herself and stood up, Naruto's body noticed the warmth it had been enjoying had left, causing him to wake up.

Unlike Sakura who woke up groggily Naruto shot up instantly awake, something that was the result of undergoing rigorous training in dangerous environments.

"I'm still at the training ground? Why's it dark?" questioned Naruto out loud, looking around. As he caught sight of Sakura she looked at him and smiled.

"You've been asleep since just after your spar." answered Sakura. "I fell asleep as well and just woke up a few minutes ago so I decided to wake you up as well." She decided to leave out the part that Naruto had fallen asleep in her arms and then had been sleeping on her through the afternoon.

"Aww Sakura-chan I was having a really good dream." grumbled Naruto as he stood up.

"Probably something about a life time supply of ramen right?" asked Sakura with a grin as she watched him get up slowly.

Instead of laughing and agreeing with her like Sakura expected, Naruto reddened slightly and turned his head away from her.

"Yeah, something like that." he answered vaguely.

Before Sakura could question his behaviour, Naruto had turned back to her with a serious yet happy expression on his face.

"Sakura…about my outburst about my parents.." Naruto began slowly.

Sakura walked up to him and gently touched his arm.

"Naruto you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, I'm fine with everything, don't worry." Sakura said softly.

"No that's not it." Naruto replied. He looked up into Sakura's eyes and she was taken aback by the amount of warmth and happiness that his eyes showed.

"I wanted to say thank you for what you did for me." Naruto blurted out quickly before he lost his nerve.

"No-one has ever done that for me before; saying what you said and holding me like you did. There's never been anyone that cared about me that much in my life. So I just wanted to say thank you, it means more to me then you could imagine." Naruto finished, still looking into Sakura jade eyes.

Sakura herself was lost for words. She had never known Naruto to open up like this to anyone before, let alone be this eloquent and soft. She was lost in his eyes still trying to formulate a reply when Naruto continued.

"It makes me really happy to know that you don't want me to be upset and I want you to know the same goes for you too." said Naruto suddenly looking serious.

"I want you to be a happy as possible too, so I promise I will get Sasuke back for you this time. I won't be a failure to you anymore."

With those words Naruto turned around and started walking briskly towards the exit of the training ground.

Sakura was rooted to the spot, both in shock of Naruto's seriousness and from the brief look in his eyes she had seen when he reminded her of his four year old promise. He had turned around quickly, hoping that she wouldn't notice, but Sakura had seen a glimpse of the hurt in his eyes when he mentioned making her happy by bringing Sasuke back.

By turning around Naruto had missed something though. When Naruto had told Sakura about what he still wanted to do for her, he expected her to react with happiness and excitement about the chance of her long time love returning to her. This was another reason he had turned around quickly and walked off, he had no wish to see her happiness regarding Sasuke. He would have been surprised to see that Sakura had had no positive reactions to the news about Sasuke and was actually thinking about her other teammate instead.

X – X –X –X – X – X –X –X – X – X –X –X – X – X –X –X – X – X –X –X

Leaving the training ground quickly, Naruto opted for jumping across the roofs of houses to get to his apartment quickly. He was wondering whether his apartment would have changed at all over the years when he was interrupted by the Kyuubi's voice inside his head.

"_**Why would you tell that girl you would bring back another male for her gaki?"**_ asked the Kyuubi in its huge, reverberating voice. _**"I can see your thoughts and feelings Naruto, doing this for her will only ruin your own chances with her."**_

Naruto looked down as he travelled across the roofs. _"It's not that simple. The fact is I don't have a chance with her, no matter how much I lo…no matter how much I want to be. She loves Sasuke and there's nothing I can do to change that. The only thing I can do for her is to keep her safe and make her happy. And to make her happy I need to bring back Sasuke."_ Naruto explained in a dull voice.

The Kyuubi snorted. _**"Maybe you wouldn't be so decided if you saw what I saw when you fell asleep gaki."**_ replied the Kyuubi.

Naruto flinched in surprise. "What do you mean by that?" asked Naruto. There was no reply from the Kyuubi, the demon had obviously decided not to say anymore. Naruto sighed, he knew from experience that when the Kyuubi didn't want to talk no amount of coaxing or persuasion would make him.

Naruto was distracted from his conversation with the Kyuubi by his arrival at the outside his old apartment. Naruto's face twisted as he tried to smile and frown at the same time. Seeing the familiar sight of his apartment brought back nice memories from his childhood; like time spent with the third Hokage. It also brought back painful memories he would prefer to forget; like getting abused physically and mentally by the villagers, searching in bins for scraps of food because shops wouldn't sell to him, and simply just crying alone on his bed where he didn't have to pretend to be happy.

Naruto didn't blame the Kyuubi for the treatment he received as a child and he had told the Kyuubi that a long time ago. Naruto knew it wasn't the fox's fault he was trapped inside Naruto and it was the villager's decision to be close minded and treat Naruto like they did. It was one of the main reasons the Kyuubi had grown to respect Naruto as a person.

In turn, Naruto had grown to respect, tolerate and even (on rare occasions) like the Kyuubi over the past year, in which the two had established a relational of mutual respect. Naruto's feelings towards the Kyuubi had changed dramatically since the Kyuubi had told him that on the night that he had attacked Kohona he was being controlled by a man called Uchiha Madara.

They still disagreed most of the time about things and they both annoyed each for different reasons, but both the Kyuubi and Naruto were very protective of each other and did not enjoy people saying or doing anything negative to the other. This relationship was the main reason behind the dramatic increase in Naruto's power that he had still not told anyone about yet apart from Killer Bee.

Naruto had made it to the front door of his apartment and located a rusty key, which was still in the hidden spot behind a rickety wall board that he had left it in four years ago.

Naruto smiled as he remembered how excited he was that day leaving the village to become stronger. Looking back he realised that he had changed more than he could have ever imagined over four years, in power and as a person.

He let himself into his apartment slowly, his black battle sandals picking up dust from the heavy layering of the stuff on the floor. As he walked in he coughed a few times from all the dust floating in the air and looked around.

Everything was how he had left it when he had left. Naruto walked over to his dresser and picked up the framed picture of the fully formed Team 7. He thought back to how simple everything was back then, even though it didn't seem it at the time.

'All I cared about was getting stronger than Sasuke and getting Sakura to notice me. I never thought that in the future I would be getting stronger for the purpose of bringing back Sasuke just to make Sakura happy.' Naruto thought sadly.

He was interrupted from his thoughts by a loud knock on his door.

'I've only been home a minute and I'm getting visitors already' thought Naruto dryly.

He opened his door to find a masked ANBU member standing there.

"Hokage-sama requires your presence if you are available." informed the ANBU member. "If you are not available now she would like to see you tomorrow morning at the latest."

'Well I was planning on grabbing some dinner at Ichiraku's but that can wait I suppose." Mused Naruto.

"I'll come now but I just need to lock up, so tell the Hokage ill be at her office in under a minute." Naruto replied.

Though Naruto couldn't see it the ANBU's eyebrows were raised. "In under a minute? Surely it will take you longer than that?" the ANBU asked, surprised.

Naruto grinned as he took his house key and locked the door to his apartment. "I could get there quicker, but I don't really want to make the effort." chuckled Naruto.

The ANBU was a bit stunned; the boy didn't look like he was lying and only ninjas of Jounin or ANBU level were taught **Shushin** to teleport.

"Well I guess I'll see you there then." replied the masked man in good humour.

Naruto smiled, he could see the man didn't believe him. "I'll race you there." said Naruto before he vanished from the spot with the swishing noise usually accompanied by something so fast it cuts the air.

The masked ANBU blinked. 'What the hell!? He just disappeared, no hand signs or anything!' he thought before making quick hand signs and teleporting to the Hokage's office with a **Shushin**.

After leaving the shocked man behind him, Naruto continued using **Shunpo **(Flash Step) to tear across the village at an incredible speed, using various roofs as stepping stones. In a matter of second he had arrived, slightly breathless, at Tsunade's office window. Naruto saw that the ANBU from his apartment had appeared in the office the same time that he arrived. Naruto waved jauntily through the window at the ANBU member, who's only response was to raise a shocked hand in reply.

Tsunade, meanwhile, was a tad perplexed that one of her top ranking ANBU guards had teleported into her office unannounced and seemed to be waving at her.

"Any special reason you're waving at me?" asked Tsunade irritably. "And what did Naruto say about the meeting."

The ANBU just replied by pointing at the window behind Tsunade. The Hokage turned around to the sight of Naruto climbing through her window while trying not to get his sword and cloak caught on the ledge.

"You're just like your damn sensei gaki." grumbled Tsunade. "Would it kill you to use the door like a normal person?"

"Well this way's a lot quicker if you think about it." Replied Naruto grinning. "I can see why Ero-Sennin does it."

Tsunade gave Naruto a frown but inside she was quite happy.

'I'm glad he isn't still upset and angry like earlier today. Maybe he's realised we his linage from him to protect him. I'm still not going to raise that issue in a hurry though. Kami knows I need him in the best of spirits before telling him about Gaara.' Tsunade thought as Naruto made his way to the centre of the room.

"Well Naruto I didn't expect you to want to have a meeting tonight, so we will need to wait a few minutes while the necessary people are summoned." Tsunade said to Naruto.

"That's ok Baa-chan." Naruto replied smiling. "I was about to go and have some dinner at Ichiraku's, but it can wait a while. Besides I know I didn't really finish my explanation earlier so it's only fair I tell you now."

While Naruto was putting on a smile, inside he was battling a tumult of emotions. He was trying to hold back the anger he was still feeling over not being told who his parents were when he was younger. He convinced himself that everyone had wanted the best for him and had good intentions, but that only lessened the anger a bit.

Tsunade and Naruto waited in silence for the 'necessary people' to arrive, preferring to save conversation for the meeting.

A few minutes later there was a knock on the office's window. To no-one's surprise it was Jiraiya, smiling goofily while being let in by Tsunade. As Jiraiya made it inside the office Kakashi appeared suddenly in the middle of the office using **Shushin**.

"Well everyone is here now." began Tsunade. "I think you all know why you're here, to continue Naruto's explanation of how he achieved his power and his progress with the Kyuubi. Anyone want to start?" Tsunade asked, looking at the three ninja in front of her.

"Well I will I guess." Kakashi said, glancing at Naruto. "Naruto you didn't answer my question before about your lack of chakra. What happened to it?" Kakashi asked.

"Yes I'm curious about that as well." seconded Jiraiya. "I didn't notice it until Kakashi mentioned it before but your chakra is at a high genin or low chuunin level."

"That's easy enough to answer." replied Naruto. "It's not that I lost my chakra, I'm just suppressing it constantly with the help of a seal on my body."

Naruto tugged his collar down and pulled his cloak away from his left shoulder, exposing a complicated looking seal just above his collarbone.

Tsunade looked confused. "Why go to all the trouble of suppressing your chakra like that, it will only hinder you in battle won't it?" Tsunade questioned.

"It won't effect when I fight because I can release the seal whenever I want mentally. If I fight someone that forces me to actually fight seriously I just release the seal, letting all my chakra out. The exception to this is if I experiencing strong negative emotions like anger. In those situations the seal can lapse momentarily, letting out my chakra unhindered. " explained Naruto.

"That doesn't explain why you're sealing it in the first place gaki." Jiraiya said questioningly.

"Well the truth is that it would be…inconvenient to let my chakra flow it's full level all the time. My chakra level has grown exponentially over the last year. It has also changed in nature. Letting people experience it could cause problems, especially in Kohona."

Jiraiya snorted in derision. "So what, you're saying that your chakra has gotten so large you have to hide it? It sounds like you've just gotten a big head gaki."

Kakashi was more pragmatic. "So how much of your chakra are you suppressing at the moment Naruto, and can you adjust how much you do suppress?"

"Yep, sure can." Answered Naruto, raising a hand to the chakra seal and mentally adjusted how much chakra he was releasing. "Now, as I'm sure you've noticed, I've got the chakra level of a high Jounin. To how much I suppress it depends. Right now at high Jounin level, I'm suppressing about 99 percent of my chakra, probably more."

Tsunade, Jiraiya and Kakashi's eyes widened comically. How could the boy possibly have so much chakra? Even when he had left four years ago for the training trip he had had exceptionally large chakra reserves, but this was completely over the top.

Kakashi decided to voice the question in all of their minds. "Naruto…" he began, still bewildered. "How can you have that much chakra? I've never even heard of anyone that has anywhere near that amount and that's coming from someone who knew your mother, who had the highest chakra reserves I've ever seen in a person."

Naruto smiled and flinched at the same time at the mention of his mother. "Well, it's thanks to my mum and the Kyuubi that I now have such massive chakra reserves." he explained. "I was told by my mum that the Uzumaki bloodline usually had large chakra reserves, it was the main reason they were chosen to be jinchuurikis for the Kyuubi before me. My mother had an exceptionally large amount of chakra even for an Uzumaki and that seems to have been passed on to me."

All three adults were surprised by all the secrets Naruto had been informed of by his parents.

'What else did Minato and Kushina tell him?' wondered Jiraiya worriedly.

All of them were silent as they allowed Naruto to continue his explanation.

"Now the reason my chakra levels are so much larger than before is thanks to the Kyuubi." Naruto said, turning to Jiraiya. "Ero-Sennin you've seen how Uncle Bee and the Eight-tails' relationship is and how they exist right?" Naruto asked.

Jiraiya nodded as Naruto turned to Kakashi and Tsunade to elaborate. "The Eight-tails completely trusts Uncle Bee and vice versa. The result of this is that Uncle Bee can call upon and use the Eight-tails chakra whenever he needs to without any risk to himself."

Tsunade nodded. "That kind of relationship is what we were hoping you could attempt to create with the Kyuubi on your training trip. From what you've said about you and the Kyuubi so far, can I assume that you have achieved that sort of relationship with the Kyuubi?" she asked hopefully.

Naruto nodded. "I achieved that quite quickly after sorting out some things with the fox. Uncle Bee was really impressed. However there was still over half a year of training left, so me and the Kyuubi tried working on ways to become even stronger."

Jiraiyas eyes widened. "Are you telling me you've exceeded what Killer Bee has with has his Bijuu? How could you possibly improve on that?" he asked.

Naruto grinned proudly before answering. "You're right. I achieved a new level of Bijuu and jinchuuriki relationship with the Kyuubi. This level is unique to me and would only work for me as far as I know, since I have such a huge amount of chakra by myself. The basic premise is that me and the Kyuubi have completed fused our chakras together, forming one immense chakra reserve."

His elders just gaped at him, unable to speak. Naruto just smiled until one of them found their voice. That person turned out to be Kakashi.

"But Naruto… The Kyuubi is just a creature of hatred and anger, why would it do such a thing as give up its power to help you become stronger?" Kakashi questioned.

Naruto's eyes hardened slightly. "The Kyuubi is burdened by hatred and anger, that is just how he was created. Humans have never given him a reason to try and control his anger. As you just demonstrated Kakashi-sensei, people just see him as an uncontrollable creature of destruction because of his past actions without even wanting to try and understand more about him."

Naruto suddenly glared at the three adults. "It was exactly that kind of thinking that caused everyone in the village to hate me and want me dead when I was younger. I'm not the type of person to want to destroy for revenge so I was nearly pushed to suicide by that kind of treatment. The Kyuubi is the type of creature to get angry and hate at the slightest provocation, so you can understand how could have reacted to the treatment he received over the years."

One by one the adults looked down as they realised their mistake. They had scolded and hated the villagers for treating Naruto as they did, but they had done the exact same thing to the Kyuubi. Especially since they now knew the Kyuubi was being controlled at the time of its attack on Kohona, they actually felt sincerely sorry for the demon fox.

Naruto meanwhile was remembering the Kyuubi's words to him before they permanently fused chakras. Naruto had been in the same boat as Kakashi, not believing the Kyuubi would do such a thing. He had asked the Kyuubi why he was willing to do it and the Kyuubi had closed its eyes and rested its head on its paws inside Naruto's mindscape.

"_**Naruto, I always thought I was a being hatred like everyone else did. My purpose of existence seemed to be only to destroy and I was satisfied with that. Then you changed all that with what you said about taking away my hatred. If someone like you, who lost their parents because of me, grew up alone, was hated passionately by nearly everyone and was nearly pushed to the point of killing yourself can still want to forgive me and help me, then maybe I owe it to you to try and change and try and help you in return. I think that you are one of the few people in this world that can have access to all of my power and not try to abuse it. I want to change this hateful world that created a creature such as myself and I think with your heart you have a much better chance at doing it than me. So we will exceed all other jinchuurikis and Bijuus and become one superpower that only you control. I have never trusted a person like I have with you Naruto, don't waste it.**_"

Naruto had walked forward touching the Kyuubi on the snout, looking into its eyes smiling.

"_I can't change the world by myself, we will do it together." _Naruto said sincerely_. "Just one thing though, even after going through all we have I still don't know your real name. I'm getting sick of just calling you Kyuubi and Fox._"

The Kyuubi grinned, not an evil grin for once. "_**I can tell you my name I suppose, it's probably a good idea since I am going to be fusing myself with you shortly. My name is Kurama..**_"

Naruto was pulled back to reality by Tsunade asking him a question. "So is the Kyuubi still inside you or is just a part of you now?" Tsuande asked.

"Yes to both of those questions." Naruto replied. "The kyuubi is part of me now and I am a part of it since we own the same chakra now. But he is still an entity in me just like he was before, just not sealed behind bars with a seal. He now exists in a much more pleasant mindscape and has a whole world inside my head to himself. It's really a nice place, I like going there a lot." Naruto said, smiling.

Tsunade looked like she was about to speak up but Jiraiya cut in quickly. "Just one more question Naruto. I can understand the cloak and I think it suits you, as well as the rest of your new get-up. But why the odd katana? I never pictured you as a sword person." Jiraiya questioned.

Naruto grinned as he pulled his katana smoothly from its strap on his hip and held it horizontally up in front of him with an outstretched arm.

"This sword was a manifestation, or a gift, from the Kyuubi. This sword allows me to channel the Kyuubi's and my power a lot easier, meaning I can perform much more powerful attacks with it. It also can act an as amplifier, taking my power to next level. Only with this sword can I achieve my maximum power." Naruto lectured.

Everyone was silent for a moment as Tsunade looked questioningly at Jiraiya, who nodded slightly in reply. Naruto saw the action and was about to question it before Tsunade began to talk.

"Naruto we are all very happy for and offer our congratulations. You have far surpassed what we thought was possible in your years of training. We do not have to fear for your safety anymore due to your lack of power." Tsunade said in a low voice.

Naruto smiled at the praise. He already knew he grown immensely powerful and was proud of it, but it was still nice to hear it coming from the people he respected most.

Tsunade continued in the same dull voice. "It is safe now to reveal to you information that has been held back from you about the Akatsuki and the jinchuuriki."

Naruto's smiled faltered. "What do you mean information I haven't been told about yet? Have the Akatsuki's plans changed?" Naruto questioned.

"No they haven't." Tsunade continued. "It was decided that information about the Akatsuki's actions over the last year would be held a secret from you for your safety. While you were told that the Akatsuki would not begin to act for four years, in actual fact they began to move about a year ago, just as your first three years of training concluded."

Naruto's eyes began to slit in anger. "And how was holding that information from me keeping me safe?" he asked a low voice.

Tsunade met his eyes unflinchingly. "If you had found out for example that your fellow jinchuuriki were at risk and were being hunted, you probably want to rush off and help them, regardless of the risk of yourself being captured. You being captured is not acceptable, so all of us, including the council, decided to keep this information from you and just tell you the basic reasoning behind the extra year of training. A rule was made that no-one was to impart any information with you about the events of the last year, under the risk of strict punishment. This did not deter your friends though, especially Sakura. But they were convinced by the reasoning that not telling you about the other jinchuurikis would keep you safe."

Naruto clenched his fists and gritted his teeth in anger and apprehension. "So you're telling me something has happened between the Akatsuki and the jinchuuriki apart from Bee and me?" he asked through his teeth.

Tsuande's gaze finally dropped to her desk. She took a deep breath before revealing what would undoubtedly cause Naruto to become the most upset over everything he had been told so far.

"All the jinchuuriki have been captured and killed for their Bijuu over the past year except you and Killer Bee."

Naruto's eyes widened, to shocked to be angry. "All of them?! Well obviously not Gaara, he couldn't have been beaten."

Tsunade didn't answer so Jiraiya spoke up hesitantly. "About seven months ago we received word from the Sand that Gaara battled an Akatsuki member over the village, lost and had been taken away. Despite efforts to save him, he was only found after the Bijuu had been extracted from him and was long dead."

Naruto's head slowly lowered, not making a noise. Tsunade, Kakashi and Jiraiya worriedly stared at him, trying to see he was reacting.

"Naruto we're incredibly sor—" began Tsunade in a sympathetic voice.

The words she was about to speak were rammed back down her throat as a humungous amount of chakra erupted from Naruto. All three adults were forced back; Jiraiya and Kakashi taking a few steps backwards and Tsunade was pushed backwards from her desk on her chair. All the windows in the office were blown out instantly and shouts of panic could be heard from throughout the Hokage tower.

'What the hell is this chakra!?' thought Jiraiya in shock as he tried to keep his balance. 'The chakra is so condensed and powerful that the air has become heavy, it's actually become more difficult to breathe.'

Jiraiya stared at Naruto who still had his head lowered, but was now radiating an orange aura around him. 'This chakra is even more powerful than what I felt from Naruto when he was in his Four-tailed form. It's not the same evil red chakra, but it's not the same pure, blue chakra that Naruto had himself. It's somewhere in between, and incredibly powerful. I've only ever experienced this kind of chakra from fully powered up Bijuu's! I can see why he seals up his chakra, everyone in the entire village is probably feeling it and panicking now.' Jiraiya thought in complete bewilderment.

Naruto finally regained some control over his emotions and sealed up his chakra again. He looked up at the three adults who he trusted with his life with flaring orange eyes.

"I can understand." began Naruto in a soft, dangerous voice. "that you had my best intentions at heart and that you meant to protect me. But If I had been told about Gaara being attacked straight away, there was a chance I could have saved his life, and I will never forgive you for that."

The three sensei had sad looks on their faces as they stared at Naruto, but Naruto didn't relent and kept going.

"I'm not an idiot, as much as everyone obviously thinks I am. I'm not going to take on an impossible challenge and throw away my life meaninglessly. I will thank you though; because of this year's training I have become strong enough so people like you don't have to make my decisions for me like a baby to keep me safe. You and the council have been able to order me to do pretty much anything you want so far and keep anything you want from me, just because I house the Kyuubi. I won't stand for that crap anymore. I am still loyal to this village and will fight to the death to protect everyone in it, including you three. But If I decide something is wrong and want to stop it, or that something should be done and want to do it; I will do it and nothing you or anyone else says or does is going to stop me anymore."

With that parting message, Naruto leapt out of one of the freshly broken windows and into the night, leaving Kohona's elite to wonder what had been lost tonight.

X – X –X –X – X – X –X –X – X – X –X –X – X – X –X –X – X – X –X –X

While Naruto was having his eventful meeting in the Hokage's office, Sakura was laying on her bed thinking over what Naruto had said and done when he left her over an hour ago. The thing that was most prominently playing over and over again in her mind was the hurt look that had come over Naruto's face when told her he was still going to bring Sasuke back for her.

She couldn't figure out why he would be hurt about that though, didn't he want to bring Sasuke back as well? Then his words hit her; he had said he would do whatever he could to make _her_ happy by bringing Sasuke back.

Sakura thought back to when she had approached Naruto crying four years ago, begging him to bring Sasuke back for her. She realised that he had had the same hurt looking face back then as well.

'It wasn't the fact that he was trying to bring Sasuke back that was hurting him, it was something else. Ugghh he is so confusing! Why can't he just tell me if something's wrong instead of trying to hide it?' Sakura thought exasperatedly.

Her thoughts were stopped abruptly by the wave of chakra that swept over her, causing her to gasp in shock.

She stood up quickly. 'That's coming from the Hokage tower! But this chakra is insane, whose is it?'

Sakura closed her eyes as she concentrated on the chakra, trying to pinpoint whose it was. Her eyes flew open moments later as she found her answer.

'It's kind of different, but that's definitely Naruto's chakra signature!' she thought as she rushed to her wardrobe, pulling out her ninja gear.

'How does he have such humongous chakra now, and more to the point why is he releasing so much right now? Something's definitely happened anyway, I have to find him!'. Sakura thought urgently, unknowingly murmuring the last part out loud.

Now fully dressed, Sakura opened her window and without a second thought jumped into the cool night, ready to search for her teammate.

'I promised I'd be there for him when he needs someone and it looks like he needs someone now. Hold on Naruto!' thought Sakura and she leapt across rooftops as fast as she could towards the Hokage tower.

**AN:** Well sorry for the lack of action this chapter. I used this chapter to explain the basics behind Naruto's power, I hope you liked the idea Next chapter will most probably have more action in it, or at least the beginning of a major fight scene. Also more Naru/Saku and information about Sasuke too. I hope this chapter met expectations and cleared a few things up and any questions that anyone has, please feel free to ask. Next update should be much sooner than the week this chapter took!

As always PLEASE REVIEW!

Have a good one


	4. Chapter 4 - A Special Moment

**Saving The World**

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, it belongs to Kishimoto. If I did own Naruto the story wouldn't be nearly as retarded.

**AN:** Hey guys, not much to say apart from here's chapter and I hope you enjoy it! Please remember to leave a review after you've read it!

**A Special Moment**

After a couple of tense minutes of running full pelt across rooftops, Sakura finally made it to the Hokage tower. She didn't have much hope of finding Naruto in the tower itself, as about thirty seconds beforehand she had felt Naruto's massive chakra die down to its previous unnoticeable (and untraceable) level and move away from the tower at high speeds. Sakura had decided to still head over to the tower to find out what had happened to make Naruto release so much chakra.

Sakura landed, breathing hard, on the tiled ledge that ran alongside the windows of her mentor's office. She noticed immediately that all the windows were broken, but there was no glass on the floor inside the office. She deduced that whatever occurred had blown the windows out from the inside quite forcibly from the lack of glass in her immediate vicinity.

Sakura raised her eyes to look around the rest of the office and was met with the sight of her mentor, Jiraiya and Kakashi looking down with desolute stares.

Being careful not to snag herself or her clothes on the jagged glass around the edges of the window, Sakura jumped deftly into the room. She noticed that everything that wasn't very heavy in the room was pushed up against the walls on all sides, like something had pushed everything away from the centre of the room.

The three mentors lifted their gaze to acknowledge the teenage ninja, but before they could speak Sakura started firing off rapid questions at them.

"What happened with Naruto? Where is he now? Did he cause this? What did you do—" The incredibly worried Sakura was cut off by Tsunade raising her hand for silence.

"We told him about what the Akatsuki have done to the rest of the Jinchuuriki, including Gaara." Tsunade told Sakura with sadness in her eyes. Tsunade thought of Naruto like a grandson and she felt appalling having to make him this upset. She knew that it had had to be done for his safety but that didn't make her feel any better about it.

"I think that you and the entire village probably know that he didn't take the news well." Tsunade continued, eying the messed up room around her.

Sakura lowered her gaze. Naruto had returned to Kohona only this morning bubbly and happy like he always was and already there was something else upsetting him and making his life harder to cope with.

Sakura bit her lip to hold back a tear that had formed. Thinking about Naruto's life so far had had that effect on her recently.

'All through his life he's had to deal with incredible hardships because of the Kyuubi and this village. His unorthodox meeting with his parents for the first time was ruined by the fact that some of his most trusted people had held back who his parents were from him. Now on his first day back in Konoha in four years has been ruined because of more secrets held back from him. I won't keep anything from him anymore; when I find him and have calmed him down I'll tell him about Sasuke, no matter how many people think I should wait to tell him.' Sakura thought.

Sakura wiped her eyes quickly and looked up at the melancholy bunch of adults with a new look of determination in her eyes.

"OK I don't need to know anymore right now, I need to find Naruto. Where did he go?" she demanded forcefully.

It was Jiraiya that responded. "I don't know where the hell he's gone; I can't sense him at all. He must have sealed enough of his chakra so people wouldn't be able to find him. I do know that he's angry and upset so he will probably be in one of his favourite places where he can calm down." Jiraiya answered.

Sakura nodded and briskly walked over to the office window, already sifting through her memories for all the places Naruto could have gone to.

As Sakura went to jump out the window her mentor's soft hand on her arm stopped her. Sakura turned her head to see Tsunade with a worried look on her face.

"Sakura, Naruto was extremely upset and angry when he left just a few minutes ago. I'm not sure going after him now would be the best thing to do. Maybe you should let him calm down a bit and look for him in the morning?" Tsunade reasoned gently.

Sakura shook her head slowly and removed Tsunade's hand from her arm.

"I promised Naruto today that I would always be there for him when he needs someone. It sounds like he needs someone now more than ever and I'm not going to let him down, no matter what the risk." Sakura replied.

Without another word Sakura leapt out of the window, copying the actions of her blonde teammate from a few minutes ago.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later Sakura was becoming quite frustrated; she had been searching for Naruto in all the places she could remember him going since she had left the Hokage tower to no avail.

She paused for a quick breather outside a bustling night bar to think over the options again. She had already checked Naruto's favourite ramen bar Ichiraku's, that had been her first guess. From there she had gone to his apartment, then to the old Team 7 training ground and finally ended up searching fruitlessly through the village night life.

Sakura was getting annoyed with herself. Naruto was supposed to be her teammate and good friend and she didn't even know him well enough to know where he would go when he wanted to be alone or to think.

As she thought this, an idea shot through her as an old memory resurfaced from the time before the third Hokage was killed, before Sasuke and then Naruto left her; before all the trouble started.

* * *

_It was late afternoon after a day of rigorous training for Team 7 and Kakashi had decided to give Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto the rest of the day off. Sakura, of course, made a beeline for Sasuke begging him to let her take him to eat somewhere. _

_As per usual Sasuke curtly declined and stalked off without another word, leaving Sakura and Naruto alone in the empty street. Sakura frowned, both in disappointment and anguish of being turned down by her crush yet again and also from the realisation that Naruto was almost certainly going to suggest that she go on a date with him instead of 'the Teme'. _

_Sakura was shocked when she turned around to see Naruto quiet and still for once, staring at the ground with a sad, serious look on his face. _

_Slipping into a soft tone that she didn't use very often with her blonde teammate, Sakura approached Naruto. _

"_Naruto is there something wrong? And what are you going to do with the rest of the day?" she asked Naruto inquisitively._

_Naruto jerked slightly as she spoke to him. He had been completely lost in his thoughts; thinking he was finally coming to the realisation that Sakura was indeed in love with Sasuke, and that no matter how much he wished otherwise, he didn't really stand a chance._

_There was a pause as Naruto's brain properly processed what Sakura had said to him. He turned to face her, his eyes still showing the sadness that he was trying hard to mask._

"_I'm sorry Sakura I think I want to spend some time alone for now. I'll see you tomorrow." Naruto replied in a dull voice that Sakura had not heard him use before._

_As Naruto began to walk off slowly Sakura called to him. _

"_Where are you going?" she asked without really knowing why._

_Naruto didn't seem to find anything odd with the question and replied without hesitation; he wasn't one to keep secrets from his crush._

"_I'll be up on the Hokage Mountain, on top of the fourth Hokage's head." He replied without turning around. "I feel completely free up there, away from everything and everyone. I go there when I want to think about things."_

_Neither of them met nor spoke to each other for the rest of the day. By the time Team 7 met up in the morning Naruto was back to his usual loud and obnoxious self and Sakura was too obsessed with trying to get Sasuke to notice her to remember to ask Naruto what was wrong._

* * *

Sakura closed her eyes briefly in repentance as she thought back to that day. She couldn't believe she had been so wrapped up in her love for Sasuke that she hadn't even cared enough about her other teammate to want to help him.

'At least I have a good idea as to where he is now.' thought Sakura as she jumped off in the direction of the Hokage monuments.

It took Sakura five minutes of running and jumping as fast as she could to reach the top of the Hokage Mountain. Sakura put her hands on her knees and panted heavily for a few moments, trying to get her breath back.

She stood up after her breathing had gone back to somewhere near its normal non-sporadic rhythm and looked around her. She was currently standing on the second Hokage's head she realised, so she turned in the direction of the Fourth's carved out face and lightly jogged across.

As the Yellow Flashes's face, 'And Naruto's father's face.' Sakura remembered with a jolt, came into view her hope began to fade. She couldn't see any trace of her upset friend anywhere from where she was standing.

Sakura decided to double check before she gave up and leapt across onto Naruto's father's carving. As she started to traverse the dome of the Fourth's head her spirits soared. Sitting on a makeshift ledge on the left side of the Hokage's face was her blonde teammate. Sakura smiled broadly, despite the situation, and ran towards him.

As Sakura neared Naruto she called out to him. "Naruto!"

Naruto turned around to face his approaching teammate. As Sakura reached Naruto and took a proper look at his face she jerked where she stood. She had expected him to be showing anger and him to shout at her, or to be upset or possibly even be crying. What she was faced with though was a completely emotionless shell of what her blonde friend's former self.

His amazingly bright azure eyes were dulled, his face had lost its usual happy glow; now looking a lot paler. As he met her eyes there was no recognition from him; no twitch of his mouth starting the smile she was used to him wearing when she greeted him and no mischievous twinkling in his eyes.

The two were motionless and silent for a few moments as sadness welled up in Sakura as she realised what must have been revealed to him at last.

Naruto finally spoke. 'Hi Sakura.' He said flatly, turning his gaze back to the night sky over the beautiful sight of Konoha lit up in the darkness.

Sakura flinched slightly at the absence of the usual suffix after her name. She didn't know why that hurt her as much as it did; when she was younger she would have been glad to not have Naruto refer to her in such a familiar way. Now she just wanted for him to change back into the young little boy that had been crushing on her back in Team 7.

'_What_?! Why do I want that?' Sakura thought irritably. She forced those thoughts out of her mind for now and focused on the reason she came to see Naruto in the first place.

"Hey Naruto, do you mind if I sit down with you?" Sakura asked tentatively.

Naruto's body didn't give away any reaction as he replied without turning around.

"Sure."

Sakura didn't hesitate and flopped herself down next Naruto, copying him by dangling her legs over the big drop in front of them. She racked her brain quickly, wondering how to get to the bottom of Naruto's problems without him closing up on her.

Naruto meanwhile was mentally snorting at the irony of the situation. Any other day he would have given a year's mission salary to have Sakura sitting with him alone up in this secluded place. However with what he was dealing with at the moment he would have preferred it if she had just left him alone to deal with everything himself.

Sakura decided to breach the silence between them.

"Naruto from the state of you I'm guessing you were told about the Akatsuki and the Jinchuurikis." She said softly.

Sakura stared at Naruto from the corner of her eye as she waited for him to reply. His cloak was parted now at the waist, flowing out on either side of him. She saw that he now wore some sort of battles sandals that seemed to attach to grey leg warmer looking things that travelled up his shins. On closer inspection she realised that the front part of the chaps were reinforced with something, protecting his shins.

She turned her gaze to the top half of his body. His cloak was now zipped up all the way from his waist to his neck, causing his high collar to hide most of his face from the side. His golden, spiky bangs were flowing gently in the soft wind and Sakura was filled the inexplicable urge to run her hands through them.

Before Sakura could berate herself again Naruto replied.

"You knew about it didn't you? About Gaara and the rest of the Jinchuurikis?" Naruto asked in the same flat voice.

Sakura lowered her head slightly. "Yes I did. Everyone did but we were under orders not to tell you or send you anything about it while you were training."

Naruto was silent for a moment before he replied. "Is that all I am to you?" he asked in a voice barely above a whisper.

Sakura's head shot up, looking at him. "What did you say?" she asked him quickly.

Naruto turned to face her and now she could see the hurt in his eyes.

"Am I just weapon to everyone here? News of my friend dying was kept from me so it didn't distract me from becoming stronger. Strong enough to control and use the Kyuubi to fight for the village."

The words were tumbling out of Naruto's mouth as he blurted out what he had been asking himself since he found out about Gaara. Sakura's eyes widened in horror as she realised what he was insinuating.

Naruto wasn't done yet though. "I-I thought that people were finally starting to recognise me for who I am. I didn't realise everyone still didn't trust me at all."

Sakura was about to interrupt until Naruto continued on in a much softer and quieter voice.

"By the time I left for my training trip I thought that maybe you didn't find me as annoying anymore and that we were actually starting to be proper friends. Do you still not care about me at all or is it that you see me as the Kyuu-"

Naruto was cut off by a hand connecting with his face hard enough to knock his head back. His head ringing and cheek burning, Naruto looked back at Sakura in shock to see her hand still raised after slapping him. She was breathing heavily and her face was contorted with a mixture of anger and sadness, the beginnings of tears visible in her eyes.

"Don't you dare say that." She yelled at him, shocking Naruto yet again. "You think everyone didn't want to tell you about Gaara? Even after we were ordered by Tsunade to not tell you anything about what had happened all of our group decided we were still going to find a way to tell you whatever the repercussions. The only reason we didn't is because Kakashi and Tsuande convinced us that it was only done for your safety and that allowing you to find out about Gaara could get you killed."

Naruto was wide-eyed watching Sakura go off at him. She had yelled and hit him a lot of times before but this was different. He could tell she was incredibly upset and hurt by what he had said in his moodiness and he instantly felt terrible that he had done that to her.

Sakura breathed in deeply to calm herself, bunching her fist on her knees now that she was kneeling in front of Naruto. She looked up at him again, her eyes now losing their anger and being replaced by more sadness.

"And don't you dare say I don't care about you." She continued, now in a softer but still hurt voice. "I thought I made it clear you're an important friend to me earlier today."

Naruto flinched as he remembered how she had cared for him when he had his embarrassing mini-breakdown. How could he have accused her of not caring at all, that couldn't have been an act could it?

"You have no idea how much I missed you while you were gone, especially this last year." Sakura continued. "Even more so after what happened with Sasuk-" Sakura stopped as she realised what she had just been about to say.

Naruto's eyes narrowed slightly at her words. "Something else everyone hasn't been telling me" he asked in a colder voice.

Sakura shook her head vehemently.

"No, what I'm about to tell you only happened only two months ago and I told everyone that I wanted to be the one to tell you. I wanted to tell you as soon as possible and this has been the first appropriate time to do so."

Naruto's anger was completely erased by her explanation, now replaced by concern as he saw his teammate looked upset about whatever happened to do with Sasuke.

"It's OK I understand." replied Naruto, turning to sit cross legged facing Sakura. "What happened with Sasuke?" he asked worriedly.

Sakura took a deep breath before retelling the events to Naruto. She knew that he wasn't going to take it well at all.

"Well about three months ago we received the news that Sasuke had killed Orochimaru."

Naruto's eye's widened again at this. "So what's he doing still-"

Sakura held up her hand to silence him. "Let me finish, wait until I'm done to comment." She replied.

Naruto nodded and settled back down to listen.

"So after we got word of Orochimaru's death Jiraiya used his spy network to try and find Sasuke location. About three weeks later Jiraiya was told that Sasuke was in an area quite near the fire country border. A retrieval team was immediately put together, which included Kakashi-sensei, two ANBU members, me, Lee and Neji."

"After a few days of travelling and following Sasuke's scent with Pakkun, Kakashi's summon, we found Sasuke and confronted him." Sakura broke off looking down.

Naruto reached across without really thinking what he was doing and put his hand on Sakura's knee. She looked up at him in surprise. Even by just gently touching her leg she could feel his heat starting to flow through her. Instead of becoming embarrassed by the slight contact she drew confidence from it and continued.

"Just by looking at him I knew that he had changed for the worse. His eyes were dark and haunting and I didn't feel any warmth from him at all. He looked into my eyes and I saw unbelievable hatred in them. We asked him about Orochimaru and told him to come back to Konoha with us. He laughed at us and told us he had no wish to come back to our 'weak and pathetic' village."

Sakura paused to look at Naruto's reaction. His hand that had been on her knee was now bunched into a fist on the ground and his eyes had filled with sadness yet again. Naruto had hoped that after killing Orochimaru that Sasuke would have changed and see the mistakes he had made. This was obviously not the case.

Sakura readied herself; this was the part of the story that would be the hardest for her to tell and probably the worst for Naruto to hear. Never the less, she continued.

"After he shot down Kakashi's proposals about coming back with us, I approached him by myself." Sakura said softly. "I told him how much I had missed him and wanted him back. I said that I would make everything OK for him and that...that I loved him."

Naruto tried to hide it, but Sakura noticed that he jerked slightly and a hurt look flashed across his face as she relayed what she had said to Sasuke. It was the second time she had seen him make that face today; the first being when he had promised her he would bring back Sasuke for her happiness. She would have asked him about it but she had to finish the story before she lost her nerve.

"When I confessed to him he laughed, saying that he didn't care about me or you or anyone for Konoha anymore. That he had cut his bonds with everyone. With that he disappeared and reappeared in front of me, thrusting his new sword into my chest. It was only Kakashi-sensei's reactions that saved me."

Sakura reached up and pulled her shirt down slightly from her shoulder, revealing a three centimetre scar just below her collarbone.

"Kakashi-sensei just managed to jump in knock the blade away from piercing my heart a moment before it would have. In the shock of me being stabbed through by Sasuke, Sasuke managed to get away from our group. That was the last we saw of him since we came back to Konoha because of my injury." Sakura finished looking down at the ground, shaking slightly as she remembered the moment that Sasuke proved he had broken the bond that they had had permanently.

Sakura looked up quickly as she felt Naruto's chakra begin to fluctuate. The air around Naruto started to glow orange and both his hands were bunched into fists, tightened so much that his hands were beginning to go white.

'I almost lost her.' Naruto thought in shock and anger. 'And it was Sasuke that almost killed her. I never thought he would go this far. I can't believe this.'

Sakura saw that Naruto was letting his emotions get the better of him just like what had happened in the Hokage tower. She quickly did the only thing she could think of doing; shuffling forward and cupping his face with one hand, raising his face to look her in the eyes.

As Naruto looked into Sakura's jade eyes he immediately calmed down, his chakra levels settling down into being held back by his seal. As he calmed down he began to blush as he noticed his proximity to the beautiful girl in front of him. Sakura didn't seem to notice as she spoke to him.

"Don't get upset Naruto, I'm fine now and I've gotten over it a bit I think." Sakura said, trying to console him.

Naruto studied her face and saw that she was trying to put on a brave face for him. He growled slightly and surprised Sakura by drawing her into a tight hug. As she was wrapped up by Naruto's arms, Sakura immediately felt calmer and inexplicably safe.

"No it's not OK." Naruto said, resting his chin on top of Sakura's head. "I know what it's like to be on the end of a killing blow by someone who is close to you. It's not something you just get over quickly. It happened to me four years ago and I'm still not totally over it."

Naruto tightened his grip on Sakura slightly.

"I'm so sorry you had to go through something like that. I promise I won't let anything like that happen to you again." Naruto said softly.

Whether it was all the emotions from the Sasuke incident she had kept bottled up, or the reaction from what Naruto had just said to her, Sakura's resolve to stay strong and keep herself in check broke. She melted into Naruto, clasping his cloak with both her hands and pulled herself into him. She smothered her sobs in his chest and managed to soak his chest within moments.

Naruto, meanwhile, was emotionally confused. He was still incredibly angry and upset about Sakura nearly being killed by Sasuke, but he was also happier than he could ever remember being at having the girl he loved nestling into him like she was now. Even though he could barely believe he wasn't dreaming, comforting the girl in his arms came first. He moved one hand to rub her back and used the other to run though her pink hair, whispering calming words to her like she had done for him.

Though she was still crying, Sakura was fully aware of Naruto's actions. Although she never, EVER would have even considered letting Naruto think he could be like this with her before, she completely welcomed it now. His warmth had enveloped her entire body and she could already feel herself calming down because of it.

She stopped crying but didn't take her face away from his chest, not really wanting him to stop. His hands on her back and in her hair felt amazing and she tightened her grip on him.

Not really considering what he was doing, only thinking about comforting his friend, Naruto tilted his head down and lightly kissed Sakura on the top of her head. He immediately pulled back blushing heavily at what he had just done, wondering if he could think of a way to get to away before Sakura punched him into the middle of next week.

Sakura was enjoying herself immensely until she felt Naruto's soft breath and then his lips on her head. Although Naruto couldn't see it, Sakura's face became redder than Gaara's hair as her brain computed what Naruto had just done. Instead of the indignation she expected to feel, a warm feeling came over her body and she moaned slightly in pleasure at the contact. She began to feel something that could only be described as lust and she knew it.

However before she could become shocked about that, she felt Naruto stiffen and loosen his grip on her. She deduced this was because he had realised what he had just done and was panicking.

'Stupid Naruto, always doing things without thinking.' she thought with a grin.

She felt him start to pull away from her by moving backwards, but she wasn't about to let that happen. She moved off her knees and wrapped her arms around Naruto's stomach, curling up in between his spread legs. She rested her head sideways against his torso and closed her eyes.

"Don't move, you're too comfortable." she murmured at him, her voice slightly muffled by his cloak.

Naruto smiled and blushed at the same time. He had no problem whatsoever not moving now that he knew Sakura didn't have a problem with it. He relaxed, bringing his outstretched legs in a bit to encircle Sakura's form and pulled Sakura closer to him with his arms.

His heart pounded as he felt her respond by snuggling up into him. He tried to calm himself before he got _too_ excited.

'It's not like she feels like I do.' Naruto convinced himself mentally. 'She's just upset and needs someone to comfort her, that's all.'

The two teammates remained in this position for about fifteen minutes, by which point Sakura had drifted off to sleep and Naruto was becoming quite uncomfortable on the rocky ground, despite his happiness of how the situation turned out.

* * *

Naruto slowly disentangled himself from Sakura while still keeping her upright with his hand. He knelt next to her, gently prodding her shoulder to see if she was really asleep or not. When she didn't stir he sighed.

"As much as I've enjoyed this, it's getting kind of late and we can't just fall asleep without anyone knowing where we are." He said softly to the gently snoring girl.

Naruto gently slid his arms under her sleeping form, picking her up bridal style. As he stood up and looked at her, he smiled sadly.

'I'll probably never be able to hold her like this again, I wish it could've lasted longer.' He thought before gripping Sakura securely and by using chakra concentrated in his feet, jumped explosively off the Fourth's head and into space.

If Sakura had of woken up at this point she probably would have screamed bloody murder and then had a heart attack, as they were both plummeting down towards to village below them. Luckily Naruto knew what he was doing and his brow furrowed as he concentrated on another skill he had learnt on his training trip.

He unsealed a small portion of chakra from his seal, concentrating on putting as much chakra as he could into his feet. When he was about fifty metres away from the roof of a high building he pushed the chakra outwards from his feet, pushing against the air below him. The outcome of this was Naruto's plunge downwards slowing considerably as the chakra was trying to push him back up into the air.

Naruto landed softly on the rooftop, hardly causing a noticeable bump for him or his passenger. Unfortunately Sakura was a light sleeper and the bump, as small as it was, was enough to wake her from her nap.

She groggily opened her eyes to slits, gazing up to see Naruto's handsome face looking forward, not yet noticing she had woken. Sakura decided to keep it that way as she felt herself whooshing through the air in Naruto's arms. She blushed slightly as she realised she must have fallen asleep up on the mountain and Naruto was carrying her home.

Sakura kept her eyes open as unnoticeable slits and gazed at the young man carrying her. Her brain was still half asleep as she was still immensely comfortable, even flying through the air. Maybe it was because of her drowsy state that as she continued to gaze at her carrier her body began to have a reaction.

'He's actually unbelievably hot.' She thought, trying not to let her blush show. 'Even Sasuke wasn't this good looking when I saw him a few months ago, and I thought he was amazing!'

Her mind rocked at the revelation that she had just admitted that someone was hotter than Sasuke. And on top of that, that person was Naruto!

Sakura mentally shook her head. 'I've gotta think this through in the morning, I'm just going to enjoy the moment.' She thought, closing her eyes and relaxing as Naruto glided through the air with her.

To Sakura's disappointment they arrived at her house a few minutes later. Naruto thought for a moment at her doorstep and decided it would be nicer to not have to wake Sakura up. So he jumped deftly up onto Sakura's wide windowsill on the second floor and used a simple skill of manipulating chakra to unlock her window. Checking quickly that no one was around to think he was breaking into a house with an unconscious girl in his arms, Naruto pushed through the curtains and stepped into Sakura's room.

He paused and took a quick look around her room; he had never had the luxury of ever being in it before. What he could see in the gloomy light was a surprisingly messy room. The shelfs and desk covered with opened scrolls and notes, while the floor was littered with random medicinal books.

Sakura cursed to herself that she had decided not to clean up her room this morning.

Naruto decided that it was a bit rude to look around someone's room without permission, so he carefully manoeuvred his way around the mess on the floor to her bed. The bed was nothing really special, apart from the quilt and pillows being a bright pink. Naruto smirked as he pulled back the covers; as much as Sakura acted violent and loud with everyone she was still a girly girl.

Naruto lay the pretending to sleep Sakura as carefully as he could on her bed, propping her head up slowly on her pillow. He then proceeded to draw the quilt up her neck, tucking her into bed.

Sakura was somewhere between feeling like she was in heaven and feeling incredibly embarrassed. She hadn't had anyone do this for her in a long time; she had stopped her parents doing it long ago since she said it '_wasn't befitting of someone trying to become a ninja_'. However it did feel amazing having someone be so gentle and caring with her. She had never expected Naruto to be able to show so much care, but her surprises weren't over for tonight just yet.

As Naruto stood up and went to leave through the window he stopped, staring at the peaceful face of the girl he had been in love with for years. His heart ached as he thought about all the things he wanted to tell her but couldn't, because he knew their friendship would be as good as over if he did. He couldn't stand it though, not saying anything. He decided that if he couldn't say it to her when she was awake that he would say it to her while she was asleep; he wouldn't get many chances like this again.

Sakura could feel Naruto standing next to her still and hear his soft breathing.

'What's he doing?' thought Sakura, fighting the urge to open her eyes. 'Is he looking at me?'

Sakura nearly jumped as Naruto spoke softly and quietly next to her.

"I'm sorry I can't say this to you while you're awake, but the risk is too great." Naruto whispered. He took a deep breath, wondering why it took this much courage to say this to someone who was asleep and couldn't hear him.

"I'm not sure if anyone's told you this before, but you are incredibly, amazingly beautiful. Not just on the outside, but on the inside too. You only thought of making me feel better when it should have been the other way around. Thank you."

And with that, he lowered his head and kissed Sakura gently on the forehead, just as Sakura had done to him when their positioned had been reversed.

Naruto blushed heavily and quickly moved away to the window. He jumped outside, closing the curtains and then window behind him. He breathed out, feeling better after confessing a bit of how he felt to Sakura, albeit with her being asleep.

Naruto grinned slightly. 'God I'm such a pussy.' He thought ruefully. With one last backwards glance at the window behind him, he jumped away in the direction of his apartment.

* * *

Back in her room, Sakura had her eyes opened wide and was blushing like a maniac. It had taken all of her self-control to not react as Naruto said those wonderful things to her and then kissed her on the forehead. Her heart had gone into overdrive and was still beating ferociously now.

'Where the hell did that come from?!' she thought, trying to calm down. 'I know that he had a sort of crush on me back when we were a full Team 7, but does he really think what he said? And what does he mean '_the risk is too great_'?'

Despite her confusion, Sakura was practically radiating happiness. She had never thought of herself as exceptionally pretty before. The fact that someone had called her 'amazingly beautiful' made her feel indeed amazing.

Needless to say, with all the emotions and confusion running around in Sakura's mind, it took a long time for her to fall asleep.

In a small dark cave somewhere in the fire country, an incredibly thin, read headed man who was strapped into a large machine coughed slightly. Behind him six similar figures all with bright orange hair were laying on the ground next to each other, apparently asleep.

A slim, purple haired young woman approached the thin man.

"Nagato, are you okay?" she asked tentatively.

The man slowly waved a hand in dismissal.

"I'm fine Konan; don't worry about me so much. Focus instead on the preparations."

The man's purple, ripple-patterned eyes glowed slightly.

"Tomorrow we will invade Konoha."

* * *

AN: Again sorry about the later than expected update. Like I said before, the end of school is incredibly hectic! Hopefully this slightly longer chapter makes up for it though. I hope the NaruSaku moment was OK for everyone, remember it's my first try at anything like this! Sorry about the lack of action in this chapter, but as you can see there will be some epic action very soon;) As always, any questions you have about the story please feel free to ask me and PLEASE REVIEW!

P.S - IMPORTANT: I'm aware that in one of my Author's Notes I said something about Kakazu and Hidan being dead. I'm sorry about making that mistake so I'm going to clear it up: No one from Akatsuki has died. Also in my story's timeline Sasuke took a lot longer to kill Orochimaru and is only now forming his team. He has not confronted Itachi yet. Any other questions about anything pelase fire away.

Thanks again

Have a good one.


	5. Chapter 5 - The Aftermath

**Saving the world**

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, Kishimoto does. If it did own Naruto Sasuke would not be so freaking OP.

AN: I'M SO SORRY about the late update. What can I say, these past two weeks have been some of the busiest weeks of my life. I hope your not all to upset and don't hate too much ^.^ If there's mistakes in here I'm sorry I just wanted to get this out as soon as humanely possible.

On another note, I got some really great reviews for my last chapter; giving me advice about the story and asking questions I wouldn't have thought of myself. These really help since I am am completely new to all of this:) Keep it up! For the people that have asked questions about how things are going to turn out; I cant tell you without giving too much away so just stick with the story and you'll find out:P

Hope you enjoy chapter 5!

Chapter 5 - The Aftermath

* * *

It was well past sunrise when Naruto opened his sticky eyelids. After the rigorous training he had been though Naruto usually woke up fully energised and ready to fight, but sleeping in his own bed after four years had put him into a state of immense relaxation.

The blonde haired boy turned his head to look out of his apartment window. He slept extremely deeply last night and for the first time in ages remembered faint traces of happy dreams he had had during the night.

He smiled slowly, not really sure why he was so relaxed and happy but content to just lay there and enjoy the moment. The warm sunlight played across his face lulling him into a dozing state. A couple of small birds landed on a tree near his window. The birds were having some form of disagreement over a berry that one of them were holding in their beak. The berry-less bird squawked in annoyance at the other bird, probably wanting a share of the small fruit.

The sharp noise of the bird squawking pierced into Naruto's half-asleep brain, waking him up completely. With his awareness levels raised, memories of the night before shot through his head in an instant.

Naruto smiled as he realised the reason for his happiness; his pink haired team-mate. He still couldn't believe he had held her as close as he did last night and that she not only allowed it but reciprocated the actions herself, pushing into him further.

Naruto's cheeks warmed slightly at the memory of his slight confession after he had carried Sakura home and put her to bed.

'I wonder if I'll ever be able to tell her that while she's awake.' he thought with a wry grin.

Naruto's bright face darkened as he remembered what Sakura had said last night while informing him of Sasuke's further descent into darkness:

"_I told him how much I had missed him and wanted him back. I said that I would make everything OK for him and that...that I loved him."_

Naruto's eyes drooped slightly as he remembered her words.

'Who am I kidding? She loves the Teme so much that even after he tried to kill her she still loves him and wants to help him. I never even had a chance.' he thought glumly.

Naruto sat up in his bed suddenly, shaking his head.

'Why am I even seriously considering being able to be with her? I know she loves Sasuke so why did I so upset when she said she told him she loved him?' he thought angrily.

'Nothing's changed; she loves Sasuke and needs him to make her happy; so I will find him, fix his brain from whatever the snake fucker did to him, and bring him back. That's all there is to it.' Naruto told himself.

Naruto pushed himself off his bed and went to take a quick shower to freshen up. As the hot water fell against his shoulders he began to contemplate his own feelings. The things that had happened last night had increased his feelings for Sakura ten-fold. He hadn't even thought about it at the time but being that close to Sakura was probably a seriously bad idea.

Naruto palmed his forehead in frustration. 'Even though I know that she loves Sasuke and she will never love me I still held her like that, what was I thinking?! I need to start trying to get over her, not make my feelings for her grow even more!' he thought exasperatedly.

As he got out of the shower he felt another negative feeling add to his already long list of them; guilt.

'I shouldn't of held her like I did. Besides the fact that it's made my infatuation worse, I'm not sure if I did it for her or for myself. If I did it for myself it means I took advantage of her while she was so upset.'

The thought made Naruto feel slightly sick and he quickly tried to distract himself by finding some breakfast. He hadn't eaten last night because of a combination of churning emotions and being absolutely bone-dead tired.

Naruto cursed as he opened his food cupboard; there was nothing in there. He felt a bit stupid as he realised he hasn't been home for four years, of course there wasn't going to be any food here.

Never perturbed for long, Naruto suddenly smiled as he thought of where he could have an even better breakfast. He quickly grabbed his trademark cloak and sword and fastened them on. He only really needed to use his sword for serious fights, but it never hurts to be prepared Naruto always thought.

Giving himself a final check in his bathroom mirror Naruto smiled wolfishly. He would never admit it to anyone, but he was secretly extremely happy with his more grown up body and look. He had always abhorred the fact that he had been quite short when he was younger and had been pleasantly surprised about a year ago when he noticed how much he had actually grown.

His cloak was very similar to the Akatsuki cloak design for good reason. When Naruto had run into Itachi and Kisame on the search for Tsunade, he had thought that their outfit was extremely cool and made his enemies look pretty bad ass. Because of this he had had his own cloak custom made to look like the Akatsuki cloaks, with different insignias on it.

Contented that he looked sufficiently bad ass, Naruto left his apartment and began a slow meandering pace to his favourite Ramen bar. Naruto felt his mood quickly brighten as he slowly walked through the village. He took his time gazing at all the familiar places from his childhood and marvelling at how little had changed.

His mood wasn't even ruined by the usual harsh looks he received from the villagers when he was younger; with his new height and cloak hardly anyone recognised him. Instead of looks of disgust and hatred he was getting looks of respect and shy curiosity from the villagers. One thing he didn't pick up on was the fact that most of his new curious admirers were teenage girls, who had taken one look at the mysterious, handsome young man and had become instant gawking fangirls.

However, Naruto wasn't ignorant enough to think that he would still be treated like this if everyone knew who he was. As soon as the villagers found out he was the container of the Kyuubi that had 'miraculously' left the village four years ago he would once again become despised and shunned.

Naruto grit his teeth in frustration. Common sense wouldn't get through to these people. Neither would telling them that he was the Fourth's son; they would just say by living he was spitting on the Yondaime's image.

No he had to find some way to prove his worth to them. If he showed he was willing to give his life to protect the villager's lives they would have to acknowledge him wouldn't they? To become acknowledged by everyone in the village was one of the main reasons he had strived so hard to become stronger; it went hand in hand with his dream of becoming Hokage.

Naruto realised he had been walking in a daze for some time and had almost walked past his destination. Smiling goofily behind his collar at the familiar sight and smell of his favourite eatery, he brushed past the door hangers covering the entrance and entered Ichiraku's for the first time in four years.

The small restaurant was empty as he walked in, but there was evidence that a group of people had recently left in the form of stacks of empty bowls on the counter. Naruto looked up to see the old man Teuchi was cooking behind the counter who seemed to be oblivious to who his next customer was.

Naruto grinned as he walked up to the counter. He was looking forward to seeing the old man and Ayame, his daughter, just as much as he was looking forward to eating his favourite ramen that he had been missing out on for so long.

Teuchi saw the movement of a new customer out of the corner of his eye. Putting on a friendly smile he reserved especially for paying customers he turned around to greet the person.

"Good morning sir, how may I help you toda-" Teuchi suddenly froze to a halt as he instantly recognised the young man in front of him.

"Naruto?! It is you Naruto! You're finally back! How the hell are you!?" the old man half yelled in an excited frenzy from seeing his favourite customer again.

Naruto chuckled and unzipped his high collar down to chest level, revealing the wide smile plastered on his face.

"I'm surprised you recognised me when I've got this cloak on old man!" Naruto said through his bright smile.

"Bah! As soon as I saw that great mop of yellow hair I knew it had to be you. Ayame! Come and see who's come back!" Teuchi shouted with his head turned to the back of the restaurant.

"I take it you want your old favourite; Miso Pork Ramen?" asked Teuchi in a normal voice, turning back to Naruto.

As Naruto nodded happily Teuchi smiled back.

"Seeing as this is a special occasion, I'll make you an extra large bowl on the house." Teuchi said walking over to the cooking appliances to start preparing Naruto's food.

Naruto was just about to reply when Teuchi's daughter Ayame appeared from the back room.

"Dad what is it? I was busy unpacki-" Ayame began before halting just her like father. Her eyes widened as she laid eyes on the tall young man in front of the counter. She had a brief moment of confusion to who this handsome man was standing in their restaurant, but then she made the same deduction as her father had when she took her the man's messy yellow hair and wide foxy smile.

"Naruto!" Ayame squealed as she quickly pulled up a moveable section of the counter to greet the boy.

Naruto didn't have any time to reply before Ayame wrapped him up in a tight hug.

'Girls seem to have been hugging me a lot since I've come back.' thought Naruto vaguely as he returned the warm embrace gladly. He grinned suddenly. 'I'm not complaining though.'

As Ayame pulled back and smiled brightly, Naruto tried to hold in a blush.

'Damn right I'm not complaining, she's beautiful! How did I not notice before I left?' Naruto thought, a bit stunned. He felt slightly guilty thinking about Ayame in such a way since he was already admittedly in love with Sakura.

Unbeknownst to Naruto, the older girl was having much of the same train of thought. Ayame was trying (and failing) to hold back a blush of her own. She hadn't thought anything of it when she rushed out and hugged Naruto, only thinking about greeting her friend after he had been gone so long. Now that she stood back and properly took in the young man Naruto had become, she was taken aback to say the least.

She had always thought, secretly, that Naruto had been quite cute when he was younger, but he was one and a half years younger than her and was only just reaching puberty back then. Plus she was pretty sure that Naruto had only seen her as an older sister, so she hadn't tried to go down that path.

Now, however, things were different. Ayame smirked inwardly as she remembered thinking to herself; _'Maybe in a few years..' _when Naruto had bade her and her father farewell just before he had left on his training trip.

'I was hoping he might have grown up a bit by the time he came back, but this is beyond what I hoped for.' Ayame thought, still blushing and holding Naruto at arms length, realising that she now had to look _up_ at Naruto's face.

She had felt the hard, defined muscles of his arms and chest as she had hugged him tightly and it had been surprisingly hard to make herself let go of him. Now that she could analyse his face properly she blushed harder.

His face still had the warm, boyish look that she had found cute before, but now it was much more defined with a harder jawline and sharper features. He had grown his hair a bit so his yellow bangs nearly came down to his bright blue eyes. Which were still as amazing as ever Ayame noticed, perhaps even more so.

'He's fucking gorgeous!' sighed Ayame inside her head.

She noticed that Naruto now had a concerned look on his face and was saying something that she couldn't hear.

"-ame. Ayame!" Naruto said worriedly as he gently shook her shoulder.

Ayame realised that she had been off in her own world, gazing dreamily at Naruto for nearly a minute.

She shook her head and let go of her clutch on Naruto's arms, stepping back.

"S-Sorry I'm OK." Ayame stuttered, trying to regain her dignity. "It's great to see you again Naruto, you've grown up well." Ayame said, blushing again as she realised what she had said.

Naruto didn't seem to be embarassed at all though. "It's great to be back! And you too Ayame, you've definitely changed since I've been gone." he said with a grin.

Ayame could tell from his face that Naruto meant in a positive way and she turned her face away slightly, fiddling with the ends of her apron.

Teuchi had been watching the interaction between his daughter and Naruto with interest out of the corner of his eye. He was quite protective of his daughter and he knew a lot of boys in the vilage had their eyes set on her. However he felt different with Naruto than he did with other boys his age. He and his daughter had known Naruto for many years and had developed a strong bond with him. He didn't know what Naruto's motives where, but he sure that whatever they were that Naruto cared too much about his daughter to hurt or take advantage of her.

Teuchi chuckled slightly as he finished plating up Naruto's ramen. 'It's probably the other way round actually, she _is_ over a year older than him.' he thought with a grin.

He noticed the two teenagers had fallen into silence for a few moments. He decided to use this respite to give Naruto his favourite cowl of food.

"Here we go, one extra large bowl of Miso Pork Ramen!" Teuchi announced, placing the steaming bowl down on the counter.

Naruto's head snapped around instantly. As he saw the ramen waiting to be eaten his eyes took developed a slightly manic glint.

"I've waited four years for this!" exclaimed Naruto as he leapt onto a stool and began inhaling the noodles.

Ayame smiled at Naruto warmly. 'Even though he's gotten older, he's still the same little boy inside.' she thought happily.

Ichiraku's was silent aside from small slurping noises as Naruto thoroughly enjoyed his ramen. By the time Naruto had finished, Teuchi had gone out the back of the restaurant and Ayame was alone with Naruto wiping down the benches.

"Aahhhhh that was amazing!" sighed Naruto contentedly as he leant back and pushed the empty bowl away from himself. "It was definitely worth the wait." he said smiling at Ayame.

She smiled back at him. "I'm glad you think so. It'll be great for business now you're back." she said with a laugh, hiding the nervousness she was feeling. She knew what she wanted to do but wasn't sure if she had the courage to pull it off.

'Well, if I'm going to go for it I might as well make myself look a bit nicer.' she thought. She took off her apron and chef assistant hat, placing them on the counter next to her. Straightening out her shirt and thigh length shorts she checked her reflection in one of the sparkling clean sinks. She groaned at her long hair, or more specifically the shape her hair was in because of the chef's hat.

Ayame was trying to inconspicuously fix her hair a bit when Naruto spoke up.

"Well It would be nice to stay here and chat for a while but I only just got back yesterday and I've got stuff I really have to do." Naruto said, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Ayame was grooming herself quite thoroughly.

Ayame started and replied automatically. "Oh OK then Naruto, I'll see you soon!"

Naruto stood up, adjusting his cloak and sword. "Sure thing, I'll be back soon don't you worry. Tell the old man I said thanks and I'll be back for more!" he replied walking out of the store while waving back to the flustered girl.

'Damn he's leaving.' thought Ayame, panicking. 'Should I still go for it? Oh what the hell, if he says yes it'll be well worth it.' she concluded hurrying out of the store behind Naruto.

"Naruto wait!" she called after the departing, cloaked boy. Naruto turned around to see a red faced Ayame looking up at him. He raised one eyebrow, silently questioning her.

"Naruto I was wondering if..umm..you wanted to catch up tonight so you can tell me what you've been up over the years? I-I'de love to hear all about your travels." Ayame asked nervously, clasping her hands in front of her.

Naruto grinned easily. "Well who would have thought it Ayame, you asking me out on a date?" he said jokingly.

Ayame looked into Naruto's eyes, steadying her resolve. "Well..I am." she replied quietly.

Naruto took a step backwards in shock. This was the first time a girl had asked him out, or shown that level of affection towards him. And from Ayame no less! She was over a year older than him and was beautiful as well as having a killer body. Not as good as Sakura's but somewhere close. She could have had pretty much any guy in the village if she wanted; ninja or villager. Needless to say he was flattered.

However he had to find a way to let her down without hurting her. Going on a date was relatively harmless, but he loved Sakura and he couldn't help it that going out with another girl felt wrong to him.

"_**So you're going to be like this when the Uchiha brat comes back and is mating with your pink haired vixen?" **_the Kyuubi snorted inside Naruto's head.

Naruto was about to 'yell' at the Kyuubi for bringing up something like that when he suddenly stopped. The Kyuubi had a point. At some point in the future Sasuke would be brought back to Konoha and Sakura would revert back to how she was when Team 7 was together. And unless Sasuke was completely homosexual he would take one look at the now grown up Sakura and at least partly reciprocate her feelings.

Naruto remembered his internal conflict from earlier this morning.

'I decided that I should let go of the hope of her seeing me as anything other than a friend and that I should try and get over her.'

"_**Tch..You think you can actually do that? I feel everything you feel you know."**_ the Kyuubi replied disdainfully.

'That's besides the point, I have to try. The more feelings I have for Sakura when Sasuke gets back the more it's going to hurt.' Naruto finished, cutting communication between him and the Kyuubi.

Refocusing on the situation at hand, Naruto smiled at the cute girl in front of him.

"Is that so? Well I would like that Ayame." he responded still smiling.

Ayame's eyes widened slightly, then her face split open into a dazzling smile of happiness.

"R-Really? Wow OK yeah it'll be fun!" blurted out an excited Ayame. "Does tonight at about seven sound good? I finish work at 6 but I want to change and freshen up before we..go out."

Naruto nodded. "Sure I'll be free then. I guess I'll come and pick you up from your house, but I'll need your address." he replied scratching the back of his head.

Ayame pulled out a pen from her short pocket and wrote the directions to her house on Naruto's hand. She felt a slight rush at the contact, while Naruto noticed he didn't feel anything; nothing like the heat and tingle when Sakura touched him. He sighed mentally, it was going to be even harder than he thought to try and make this work.

Ayame finished writing on his hand and backed off, still smiling warmly. "OK then, well I've gotta get back to the shop. I'll see you tonight Naruto!" she said brightly as she half skipped back to work.

Naruto waved goodbye to the retreating girl, his smile giving no clue to his inner tumult.

'This just feels wrong somehow. She looked so happy, I can't lead her on like this.' Naruto thought sadly.

"_**I thought you said you had to try brat. You're giving up so soon?"**_ mocked the Kyuubi.

'_Shut up furball! That's why I agreed to the date in the first place! I feel like shit but I have to give it my best shot. I can't even think about what it would be like if Sasuke came back now and Sakura went all lovey-dovey over him again. I'd probably have to leave the village for a while at least._' Naruto retorted sullenly.

"_**Mmm. It seems to me like you're still being a pussy. You should just tell the pink-haired vixen how you feel and hope for the best."**_ the Kyuubi replied.

Naruto didn't reply for a moment as he contemplated the Kyuubi's idea. Finally he shook his head.

'It's not that easy.' he finished, again severing the communication with the fox.

Bringing his mind back to the present, Naruto began to think about what he was actually going to do today. Even though he knew he should go and try and sort things out with Tsunade, Kakashi and Jiraiya he really didn't feel like seeing or talking to them at the moment.

He mused over going to find his friends or Sakura and hang out with them, but he wasn't really in the mood for being around lots of people, especially Sakura with the way his emotions were right now.

He sighed. One day in from returning to Konoha and so much had happened already. Not all bad things, Naruto reminded himself of last night with Sakura, but definitely problematic things.

With no real plan in his head, Naruto decided it would be nice to to go and visit the old man Hokage's grave and pay his respects. Naruto had grown up a lot while he had been away, and while the Hokage's death still affected him, he now felt happy and pleased about the way he had died. He had died the way he wanted; protecting the village and everyone in it that he held so close to his heart. As Naruto wandered to the cemetery he wondered that if he had to die early, would he be lucky enough to go out fighting to protect something he loved.

Little did he know that he was going to get the opportunity to have that sort of fight in the very near future.

* * *

Sakura had woken up feeling unreasonably happy. Much like her blonde-haired team mate, she didn't realise why she felt so good and was just content to enjoy the moment. Sakura sat up slowly in her bed, memories from the night before slowly coming back to her with her regaining consciousness.

She smiled widely at the thought that her and Naruto had gotten closer already. She had worried that after spending so long apart from each other that they would have trouble reconnecting. She had been worried has was going to turn out like Sasuke. She was happy that her worries had been unfounded.

Sakura suddenly blushed and lightly touched the top of her head where Naruto had kissed her up on top of the Hokage monument. She had convinced herself that he was simply trying to comfort her, and yet her body had reacted much more than it should have. Sakura mulled over this for a few moments, then decided to put it down to how emotionally distraught she was at the time; she hadn't been in her right state of mind.

The rest of the night's events came back to her gradually; her falling asleep against Naruto, waking up to find him carrying her home, pretending to still be asleep so he would continue doing so, him taking her into her bedroom and...

Sakura sat bolt upright, remembering suddenly what Naruto had done just before he had left through her window. Her blush returned in full force as his words came back to her.

_"I'm not sure if anyone's told you this before, but you are incredibly, amazingly beautiful. Not just on the outside, but on the inside too. You only thought of making me feel better when it should have been the other way around. Thank you."_

Her forehead burned pleasantly around the area that Naruto's lips had touched her. She couldn't use any excuses this time, she _had_ been in her right state of mind at that moment. When he said those words to her she had been amazingly happy. Even thinking about it now made her body tingle slightly.

She shook her head quickly; what was wrong with her? She didn't feel like even around her Uchiha teammate and she admittedly loved Sasuke. Didn't she? Was she just clinging onto the memory of how the raven-haired boy had been before he left, or did she actually still love him as he was now?

"Aarrghhh!" Sakura exclaimed, dropping her face into her palms. Why did everything have to be so confusing!? She was ecstatic that Naruto was back, but within the space of a day he had somehow turned her emotions into a confusing whirlpool. She truthfully didn't even know what she was feeling at the moment, or for whom.

Sakura decided she had lounged around for long enough. She forced the confusing thoughts and feelings about Naruto out of her mind, grabbed some clean clothes and walked briskly to the bathroom. She calmed herself down by letting the hot water crash against her forehead. Even though the thought of it made her stomach feel funny, she concluded that the best course of action would be to try and get some closure from Naruto about last night. She wouldn't ask him about what he said to her when he put her into bed; she was supposed to have been asleep.

She _did _want to know why he had wanted to be so close to her and why he had treated her so tenderly and with so much care. She wasn't upset with him about it, quite the opposite; she just wanted to know what he thought about it before she concluded how she felt about it.

Getting out of the shower fully refreshed, Sakura pulled on her clothes and made sure her hair was perfect. Looking over herself in the mirror she double checked everything about her appearance. When she realised what she was doing she blushed slightly.

'When have I cared so much about looking good for someone? It's only Naruto.' she thought, berating herself.

She couldn't really be bothered dealing with her parents today. They'd probably start asking questions about what happened last night and she _really_ didn't want to get into it with them.

So she ran past both her perplexed parents yelling, "Morning Mum, Dad. I'm going out for a while, see you later!" and burst out through her front door.

As she careened into the busy street, she paused to think where she could find the blue eyed boy that had been the object of her confusion. She smiled as thought of the obvious place to start.

Five minutes later Sakura walked into Ichiraku's. She looked around disappointedly not finding anyone inside apart from a happily humming Ayame.

Sakura walked up to the counter smiling at the older girl. She had gotten to know Ayame quite well over the years that Naruto had been away. Sakura had frequented the ramen bar quite a lot since Naruto left as a way of reminding herself of him.

"Hey Ayame, has Naruto been in this morning?" Sakura asked politely.

The long haired girl looked up and grinned at her friend. "He was here about ten minutes ago, you just missed him." she replied happily.

Sakura perked up, realising her friend couldn't be too far away. "Thanks Ayame! And what's happened to you? You look like an excited young Naruto." Sakura said with a grin, walking backwards out of the shop.

Ayame looked down to hide her blush. "Well I'm going on a date tonight. I asked someone out and they said yes." she replied in a quiter but proud tone.

Sakura's eyebrows rose in interest. "Ooo how romantic Ayame! Who's the lucky guy?" she asked teasingly.

"Umm it's Naruto." came Ayame's hesitant reply.

Sakura stopped dead in her tracks, her mind ticking over. She knew she shouldn't have much of a reaction to what Ayame just said but she couldn't help it. Her happy mood deteriorated instantly leaving her feeling churned up, upset and slightly betrayed.

"_Betrayed?"_ her inner voice said. _"Betrayed by what? Do you think Naruto is yours or something?" _

'N-no but...but what about last night? What is he doing going out with another girl the day after that?' replied Sakura somewhat angrily.

"_What about last night? The part where you told him you still loved Sasuke?"_ he inner self retorted.

Sakura froze up the for second time. Her inner self was right. She had told Naruto that she loved Sasuke and what, she was mad and upset at him for going on one date? She was pissed at herself now, both for the way she was feeling and for her selfishness.

Ayame looked worriedly at the girl in front of her who had her head lowered, making her face invisible.

"Umm Sakura are you OK?" asked Ayame kindly.

Sakura's head snapped up, an obviously fake and forced smile on her face.

"Yep I'm fine Ayame. I've got to go though, bye." Sakura forced out in an overly jovial tone and then ran out of the restaurant breathing hard.

All at the same time Naruto's, Jiraiya's and Tsuande's head shot to attention. It had only been faint but they had all felt it none the less. There had been a disruption in the village's chakra field. Tsunade and Jiraiya felt it because they were in tune to the chakra field and Naruto felt it just because of his greatly improved chakra sensing abilities.

Naruto closed his eyes to determine where the chakra was coming from. His eyes widened as he pinpointed the location; directly above the village and now from the middle of the village. He immediately took off at high speeds towards the unknown chakra signature, jumping across rooftops.

Naruto could tell whatever it was was strong, strong enough to pose a large threat if it turned out to be hostile. Naruto gritted his teeth and increased his speed.

Sakura was walking almost blindly along the street. She had used up almost all her energy trying to keep her emotions at bay, but now they were getting the better of her. All she wanted to do, much to her disgust, was to curl up somewhere and cry. Preferably cuddling up to Naruto...

Sakura nearly screamed out loud. If she didn't get her feelings sorted out she was going to become a quivering wreck.

Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, all her thoughts were instantly wiped from her mind as an small explosion a few metres away from her rocked her backwards, temporarily disorientating her.

As she became aware of her surroundings, she saw six cloaked figures standing in front of her. All of them had dark orange hair with unusual black piercings all over them. Their most defining feature though was their eyes. All of their eyes were metallic purple with black ripples throughout them. Even Sakura's muddled brain could comprehend that these people definitely did not look friendly.

One of figures stepped forward. He was a tall man with spiky orange hair and no emotion at all showing on his face.

Suddenly he spoke. "Where is the nine-tails Jinchuuriki?" he demanded in a dull monotone.

Sakura's brain kicked into gear. 'These people are after Naruto.' was the only thought in her head.

She got into a fighting stance. "I won't tell you anything!" she challenged bravely.

The man suddenly appeared in front her, gripping her neck tightly with one hand.

'Fast..' thought Sakura as she tried to loosen his grip to no avail.

"Tell me where he is, or I will kill you." Said the spiky haired man.

Sakura eyes widened. The man's voice had not changed, he did not seem affected in the slightest by what he had just said. Fear started to creep into Sakura as she realised man fully intended to carry out his threat.

'I won't give Naruto up!' Sakura thought resolutely. 'I'll die happy if I can spend my last moments protecting him.'

A flash of sadness went through her. She hadn't even got the chance to talk to him about how he felt about her.

Before Sakura could delve any deeper into all the things she hadn't done in her life, a cloaked hand shot out and gripped the wrist of the hand holding onto Sakura's neck. The hand squeezed the purple-eyed man's wrist enough to loosen his grip. Once Sakura's neck was released, the newcomer threw the man's arm away from him, forcing the man to take a few steps back.

Sakura collapased to her knees, heaving in air as fast as he body would allow. After a few moments she glanced up at her saviour. She nearly melted on the spot.

Naruto was standing in front of her protectively with his cloak billowing out behind him heroically. His cerulean eyes were flashing dangerously as his gaze bored into the man that had attacked Sakura.

Despite the situation they were in, Sakura's body was starting to heat up as she gazed at the young man in front of her. For once she didn't try to stop herself, she was to exhausted to hold it anymore.

'God he looks hot like that..' she thought, still slightly dazed.

"The nine-tail Jinchuuriki is here. And who the hell are you?"demanded Naruto, dangerously quiet.

The six figures all directed their blank stares at Naruto. The spiky haired man who seemed to be their leader stepped forward.

"We are Pein. And we are here to capture you." the man said, purple eyes glowing.

* * *

AN: Sorry about the lack of action in this chapter, I'm sure you guys expected the fight to happen this update. I don't think this chapter is very good but I just wanted to get some things out of the way first. They needed to be addressed for the relationship between Naruto and Sakura to evolve. Again I'm terribly sorry about the late update, but I will do my best to make it up to you by bringing out the next chapter as fast as I can!

As always PLEASE REVIEW and hit me with as many questions as you want.

Have a good one


	6. Chapter 6 - On Another Level

**Saving the world**

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, Kishimoto does. If I did own Naruto, Jiraiya definitely would still be alive.

**AN:** Now for the chapter everyone has been waiting for...Naruto vs Pein! This is the first 'serious' fight of the story and where Naruto's powers are actually put to the test. This chapter took longer than I thought to write and would have been released two days ago but of course my internet decided stop working=.= To make up for it this chapter is double length, OVER 10000 words:P I hope you all enjoy this chapter, I'm not sure how it went so PLEASE let me know what you think by reviewing! It makes sooo much of a difference to me.

Also I'd just like to thank EVERYONE that has reviewed, favourited and followed my story. I can't believe how many people have liked my story:) Special shout out to Arch-Daishou for the continued support with my story and filling me in about things I hadn't even thought about when writing and to Narusaku189 for that amazing review, that made me feel awesome thanks3. Everyone of you has really inspired me to keep on writing this story. You have my gratitude3

Hope you enjoy chapter 6!

* * *

**_Chapter 6 - On Another Level_**

"We are Pein. And we are here to capture you, Jinchuuriki." the man said, purple eyes glowing.

Naruto was about to retort when the Kyuubi interrupted him.

"_**Naruto don't be careless. His eyes..are powerful. I have known only one other person to have them in my lifetime and that was the Sage of the Six Paths." **_The Kyuubi informed Naruto in a serious voice.

Naruto's eyes widened in shock.

"_The Sage!? The man who pretty much created you and all the other tailed beasts?"_ Naruto asked hesitantly, not sure if he wanted to hear the answer. The Kyuubi had filled Naruto in about his past, including that of his creator; the Sage of the Six Paths.

Even though Naruto couldn't see the Kyuubi, he could almost feel the fox nodding.

"_**The very same. Don't worry though, the chances of this man or this group being as strong as the Sage is incredibly minute. The Sage was a being on another level, even to me."**_

Naruto mentally sighed in relief, but his relief was cut short by the Kyuubi's next statement.

"_**Needless to say, anyone possessing those eyes are going to be extremely powerful. Don't get cocky Naruto, you may have to go all out."**_ the demon fox warned.

"_OK thanks for the heads up Kyuubi. I have to get on with it now though."_ Naruto finished before refocusing on the situation at hand.

Naruto tore his gaze away from the purple-eyed man in front of him to look around him. While they were in a pretty big paved, empty courtyard, he knew that for a fight of this calibre it wouldn't be safe fighting in the village.

He glanced behind him at his shell-shocked team-mate who was still on her knees breathing hard. He didn't blame her; she had just been nearly choked to death. She would have died if he hadn't arrived in time. Just the thought of it nauseated Naruto and he closed his eyes briefly closed in pain.

'There's no way I'm gonna let that happen again. I'll die before he lays another hand on her.' he thought angrily.

Naruto turned back to look at the emotionless man in front of him.

"Guess there's no way around it then, we will have to fight. Not that I mind at all, I will eliminate anyone that threatens the lives of those I care about." Naruto said quietly.

The orange haired man's face remained impassive in the face of Naruto's challenge.

"I care nothing for your motives, nor your feelings." replied the man calmly. "You do not stand a chance against us, so no matter how hard you fight or how hard you try, you will be defeated and captured."

Sakura had gotten past her oxygen deprived daze and was now looking up at Naruto worriedly. She knew she was by no means a weak ninja, especially in the category of brute strength. However the strange man who had attacked her had completely overpowered her, seemingly without exerting any effort at all. She didn't even want to imagine how powerful the man could be if he tried. And now Naruto had to fight six of them, at once. It hurt to admit it to herself, but as much as she wanted to help Naruto, Sakura somehow knew there wasn't much she would be able to do in this fight.

She started, suddenly shaking her head and forcing herself to get up.

'Stop being weak! It doesn't matter if I can't do much to help him, I still have to try!' she scolded herself mentally as she staggered up next to her team-mate.

Naruto intense glare immediately transformed into one of concern as he felt Sakura take a fighting position next to him.

"Sakura.. I'm sorry but you need to sit this one out. You're still partially in shock and are in no condition to fight." Naruto said to his pink-haired friend, laying a hand tenderly on her shoulder.

Sakura shook her head vigorously and raised her hand to cover Naruto's hand, squeezing it gently before trying to let it off her shoulder.

"No Naruto. I appreciate your concern but I'm going to fight with you this time. When were back in Team 7 it was always you and Sasuke that fought our enemies and I just hung back being useless. While you were gone I trained as hard as I could with Tsuande-sensei so I would be able to fight with you when you got back. Let me show you that I can-"

She stopped abruptly as she felt Naruto's hand tighten on her shoulder. She looked into his azure eyes to see them full of determination and something else she couldn't quite recognise.

"Sakura." Naruto began,staring deep into her eyes, willing her to understand.

"I know that you have improved a lot over the years I've been away, that much is obvious just by looking at you. I look forward to being able to fight alongside you, but this is my fight. I have a score to settle with these Akatsuki bastards and I can tell I will need to take this fight seriously. Having someone with me while I fight seriously probably isn't a good idea. So please, let me do this alone."

At that moment both Jiraiya and Tsunade made their entrance by landing down close to the two ex Team 7 members who were both staring at each other. The two Sannin's eyes immediately drifted to six cloaked figures some ten metres away from them.

Jiraiya started as he took in the cloaks the figures were wearing.

"Akatsuki!" he exclaimed, quickly adopting a fighting stance. Jiraiya then focussed on the apparent leader of the group in front of him and his eyes widened to epic proportions.

'What the hell!? No, there's no way...' Jiraiya thought in amazement and horror.

"Yahiko..?" the toad Sannin whispered out loud.

The orange haired man in question turned his dull gaze to the two newcomers.

"That name means nothing to me. We are simply known as Pein and we are here to capture the Nine-tails Jinchuuriki." he informed the two older ninjas.

Tsunade growled slightly. "Well your not getting him, we won't let you." she said forcefully as she started to pull up her sleeves.

The mysterious group focussed their gaze on Tsunade. "Anyone in the way of our objective will be destroyed." the lead man said nonchalantly as started to raise a hand slowly.

"No!" Naruto shouted, causing everyone including Pein to look at him.

"You just want me don't you? I'll fight you alone, don't include anyone else." Naruto said looking at the Akatsuki members.

Jiraiya and Tsunade looked at Naruto in shock and anger.

"What are you saying brat? Don't be stupid and cocky! We will fight against him together with you." Jiraiya exclaimed loudly.

"That's right Naruto, we're not going to risk you getting hurt or taken away by-" Tsunade began but was cut off by Naruto's raised palm.

"I'm not being stupid or cocky. If I want to take this fight seriously I need to fight alone." Naruto said as he began to walk forward.

"Jiraiya-sensei, Tsunade-sama, I'm just asking you, for once, to trust me." Naruto asked as he stopped in front of the two Sannin, facing away from them looking at Pein.

Naruto's words hit both his elders hard. They still felt guilty about hiding things from Naruto and they knew that he didn't trust them as much any more. They both cared deeply for the blonde-haired boy and despite how they acted, they respected and trusted his judgement more than they let on.

Jiraiya clenched his fists so tightly that his course hands became white as he came to a decision.

"Fine Naruto you can fight them alone, I know what this means to you. But as soon as you seem like your in trouble we're jumping. No matter what you say."

Naruto lowered his head and smiled slightly. "Thank you, that trust means means more to me than you know. I won't betray it. Trust me again when I say I won't let anything happen to anyone I care about; I will protect this village." He said in a quiet voice full of determination.

Naruto raised his gaze to the group in front of him. "We need to change location, I will not fight where I put the villager's lives in danger. Follow me and we'll go somewhere where we won't disturb anyone." he said in a calm voice.

"It makes no difference, the outcome will still be the same." the orange haired man replied.

Naruto nodded and was just about to take off to the village gates when he was interrupted by a shout.

"Naruto!" Sakura called suddenly, causing Naruto to turn around to look at her.

Even though Sakura was prepared to let Naruto fight this 'Pein' group by himself, that wasn't to say she wasn't worried about her team-mate. In fact all she wanted to do was to run up to him and beg him not to do it and let everyone fight with him. Even after him only being back in Konoha a day and a bit, Sakura was already extremely protective of her blonde team-mate. The only reason she was letting him do this is because she wanted him to know she trusted him. She knew after the whole secrets being kept from him debacle that it was going to be hard for him to trust people again. She wanted more than anything to make him understand that he could trust and rely on her. And if this was the best way to show him then she would have to deal with him being unsafe.

"N-Naruto I.." she stuttered slightly, thinking of how she could get her feelings across to him.

"I'm not happy with this and if I'm letting you do this I'm expecting you to come back in one piece, OK?" She said in a forced happy sounding voice, smiling. However, the slight break in her voice at the end of her sentence gave away her true feelings.

Naruto sensed Sakura's worry for him and gave her a wide, happy smile. He didn't have to force it all; knowing that she was concerned about him made him inexplicably happy.

"Don't worry Sakura-chan, I don't plan on getting captured any time soon. I'll try and make sure you don't have to heal me too much." he replied with his old trademark 'thumb up and grinning' sign. He then abruptly jumped onto a nearby rooftop and sped away towards the village wall with Pein in hot pursuit.

Sakura gazed after him with wide eyes, blushing slightly. She hadn't missed the suffix Naruto had added onto the end of her name and she couldn't stop herself from thinking that she like hearing it. A lot. It made her happy to see him behave somewhat like his old self again; she had missed his antics more than she had realised.

Tsunade glanced over to her apprentice. Despite the situation, seeing the girl slightly red-faced and staring vacantly at where Naruto had been a second earlier made her grin.

'She's falling for him and she probably doesn't even realise it yet, silly girl.' Tsunade thought chuckling.

Refocussing on the task at hand she began to walk towards Sakura.

"Sakura!" Tsunade called, bringing the pink haired girl out of her daze.

"Yes! Sorry Tsunade-sensei." Sakura exclaimed flustered, turning to face her teacher.

Biting back a grin, Tsunade pointed after the quickly shrinking forms of Naruto and Pein.

"Even if I agreed to not interfere with his fight, I'll be damned if I'm not there to jump in if I need to. You OK to travel fast?" The Hokage asked Sakura.

Sakura nodded her head vigorously. She was planning to go after Naruto anyway, regardless of what her teacher said. She was happy to have some back up.

"Sure thing Tsunade-sensei!" Sakura exclaimed before immediately shooting off in pursuit of her friend.

Jiraiya chuckled as he and Tsunade watched Sakura take off so fast she left an after-image.

"She cares about the boy a lot doesn't she?" Jiraiya asked Tsunade without looking at her.

Tsunade smiled at the question. "More than she realises. Now come on you old pervert or we'll get left behind." she answered.

Without bothering to retort to the less than respectable nickname, Jiraiyi quickly bit his thumb hard enough to draw blood.

"You go after them now, I have to do something quickly first." he said before slamming an open palm into the ground.

* * *

Kakashi was spending an uneventful morning doing paperwork. He sighed for the hundredth time, wishing (for the hundredth time) that _something_ would happen so he didn't have to spend any more time filling out tedious forms.

As if his thoughts were heard by some higher being, there was a slight knock on his window. Kakashi sat up, curiously pulling back the curtains to find an out of breath frog sitting on his windowsill with a scroll on its back.

'A message from Jiraiya-sama, I wonder what he could want.' Kakashi mused as he let the exhausted frog in.

Instead of explaining itself, the frog instead opted to flop face first onto Kakashi's desk and then refuse to move.

Kakashi grinned slightly at the frog before untying the scroll from its back to read.

His eyes widened as took in the scroll's information. In less than twenty seconds after finishing reading, Kakashi was fully decked out in his ninja outfit and shooting out of his window.

* * *

Shikamaru yawned as he walked through Konoha's huge gates into his home village. His mission that had taken the past two weeks had been a complete waste of time according to him. Him and Asuma, his sensei, had been instructed to patrol around the fire country near Konoha, looking around for any signs of Akatsuki movements. After talking to countless people and walking for more miles than even Shikamaru's brain could count, their search had come up fruitless.

Shikamaru sighed. "Well I'm glad to see the end of that troublesome mission." he said in his usual monotone voice.

Asuma laughed. "Well for once I agree with you Shikamaru. That mission was indeed..troublesome." he said grinning at the use of his student's favourite word.

Shikamaru was about to reply when something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention.

He stopped dead in his tracks as he saw a blonde haired cloaked figure apparently being chased by 6 other figures across the rooftops in patterned cloaks which looked suspiciously like the signature getup of the Akatsuki.

Asuma noticed his student stop walking and turned to look at him. As he saw Shikamaru's wide eyed gaze, Asuma quickly searched for what Shikamaru was looking at. His reaction was much the same as his shocked student.

The spectacle became even more unbelievable as now a pink-haired girl who could only have been Sakura could be seen trailing behind the initial chasers, who was then followed by Jiraiya the Toad Sannin and the Hokage who seemed to be having a race to see who could run faster over the rooftops.

Asuma was the first to be able to make his mouth function properly.

"Shikamaru, I will go after them to find out first hand what the hell is going on. Either way it seems Akatsuki has invaded the village and they're going to need as much help as they can get. You go and get your team mates and their jounin sensei and then follow after me. They seem to be trying to get outside the village." Asuma ordered professionally, living up to his rank of Jounin.

Shikamaru simply nodded and ran off in the opposite direction to his sensei, trying to wrap his big brain around what he had just seen and what it entailed. Then something hit him.

'Was that _Naruto_?!'

* * *

Ten minutes of extremely fast paced running and jumping later, Naruto thought he had finally came across an appropriate battle field ahead of him. He had increased his pace after he had exited the village and so had his chasers to keep up. Naruto was slightly impressed; it wasn't like he was using flash step, but it was still quite a feat to keep up with him when he was travelling this fast. He had noticed that Sakura, Tsunade and Jiraiya had been left far behind them.

Naruto pushed himself to a greater speed as he approached the large ridge/cliff in front of him and pushed off into a chakra infused jump as he reached the edge. As Naruto flew though the air he surveyed his surroundings, nodding in appreciation. It was as he had thought; he had come across a huge, circular rocky basin. It looked to be about a kilometre in diameter and had a high ridge around the edge. The basin itself looked like a desolate plain; it was almost completely flat all the way across and completely devoid of any green.

Even though Naruto covered a large amount of with his jump, he still needed to continue running hard to reach the centre of the plain. When he reached the middle he came to a stop and waited for his enemy to reach him.

He didn't have long to wait. The 6 cloaked orange-haired figures stopped about twenty metres away from him a few seconds later. Naruto noticed that like himself, the mysterious group in front of him was barely breathing hard at all.

'I can tell they're strong, but there's definitely something strange about them.' Naruto thought as he stared at his enemies. 'There's six of them but they don't act like separate people. In fact only one of them has talked at all. The rest of them seem to simultaneously act, almost as if they have someone controlling them...I guess I'll find out soon enough.'

" There's a few things I'd like to know before we start this." Naruto called across the distance between between him and Pein.

"You've told me your name is Pein." Naruto continued. "But your a group of people, not one person. Who, or what, are you? And what are your motives? I know Akatsuki are trying to capture all of the tailed beasts, but why are _you_ doing this? What's in it for you?"

There was a slight pause before the designated speaker of the group answered him.

"We are not singular, we are simply Pein. We are an entity that has risen above the level of ordinary beings to achieve our goals. I am the leader of the group Akatsuki and I feel no need to tell you anything apart from that." The man replied in a dull voice.

Naruto gritted his teeth. 'This is the Akatsuki leader? There's no doubt about his strength now.' he thought apprehensively.

Something else from what the said hit him. 'A being on a level above the ordinary? I guess I'll have to test that out for myself.' Naruto thought, baring a slightly wolfish grin.

"OK talking time is over." Naruto called suddenly. "Get ready."

Naruto spread his legs slightly, ready to move, but before he could one of the group spilt off making quick hand seals.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" the man yelled before slamming his hand into the ground.

Naruto held back, content now to let his enemy make the first move to attack. His eyes widened slightly as there were two huge puffs of smoke and two extremely large charging rhinos appeared from the smoke.

'Interesting, I didn't expect that.' thought Naruto. 'I wonder if they all do different things, that would explain why there's a group of them.

Naruto stood still and watched as the two gigantic animals spilt apart and closed down on him from either side. It was this moment when Sakura, Jiraiya and Tsunade finally arrived at the edge of the ridge. Sakura's eyes widened as she saw the monsters charging towards a stationary figure that could only be Naruto. Jiraiya sensed her panic and laid a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sure that Naruto has something in mind, don't worry. One thing I learnt while training him is that he is actually a lot more intelligent than people believe. Just believe in him and watch." Jiraiya said reassuringly.

Sakura felt herself calm down a bit, not much though, and resumed staring at Naruto willing him to move.

Back down on the battlefield, Naruto could almost feel the breath of the two creatures they were so close. Their humongous horns were lowered so the points would drive straight into him. Strangely though, Naruto grinned.

"Sorry." he said calmly. "This won't be enough."

Just as the tips of the creature's horns came with touching distance, Naruto threw up both his arms on either side and blocked incoming horns with his bare palms. Even though the monstrosities smashed into Naruto with incredible force, Naruto's hands did not move an inch under the impact.

The creatures were forced into a dead stop after running at full pelt. The outcome of this was both the huge animal's necks snapping under the pressure, causing both summons to dissapear in two puffs of smoke.

The leader of the group who had remained unmoving, expressed emotion for the first time by slightly widening his eyes. Stopping such a force with nothing but bare hands without moving at all; this man was strong.

Naruto looked up still grinning. "My turn." he said before disappearing to a loud swishing noise before everyone's eyes.

Naruto immediately reappeared in front the Pein member that had summoned the rhinos. The man couldn't react fast enough as Naruto ploughed a fist into his stomach, sending the man flying backwards.

Even the punch connected another, broader man appeared behind Naruto, trying to kick Naruto in the back. Naruto immediately flash stepped behind the man, effectively dodging the kick and then going for one of his own.

Much to Naruto's surprise, the man shot an arm to his side, blocking the kick without even turning around.

Naruto's eyes widened then narrowed as he jumped backwards, disengaging.

'Something's not right. There's no way he could have seen that kick coming.' Naruto thought looking around at the other members of Pein that were watching him intently.

'I wonder if they all have some sort of telepathic connection? That would explain why he was able to block that kick without looking.' Naruto deduced mentally.

Naruto held his hands out to his side forming two Rasengan, one in each hand. 'Time to see what happens when I attack the leader.' he thought before running forward and disappearing into another flash step.

As Naruto disappeared, one of cloaked men positioned himself in front of the 'leader'.

No sooner had he moved Naruto reappeared, slamming one Rasengan into the man in front of his target. Strangely though, his Rasengan seemed to be having no effect. Naruto gasped as he saw his spiralling orb being sucked into a forcefield around the man. Naruto quickly deduced that this man's power must have something to do with absorbing attacks.

Thinking on the spot, Naruto slammed his other Rasengan into the ground in front of the man. Naruto escaped the resulting explosion by flashstepping to the man's side, who was now distracted by the pieces of high speed rock that was flying towards him. Naruto quickly sent the man flying with spinning kick, already forming another Rasengan in his hand. As his feet hit the ground, Naruto disappeared and reappeared next to his original target, swinging the Rasengan towards the leader.

The man in question, however, did not seem worried by the fact that he had a spinning ball of chakra headed for his face. Instead his lifted both of arms quickly and shouted "Shinra Tensei!"

A wave of pure power push outwards from the man, hitting Naruto straight on and throwing him violently up into the air. Sakura's heart missed a beat as she saw Naruto's form being thrown into the air like a rag doll. Her hopes had been high when she saw Naruto stop the summons with his bare hands, but now that she saw him being overpowered she was back into her panic mode. Despite the obvious risk and power difference, all she wanted to do was to run down there and smash the weird eyed man's face in. Only the grip of Jiraiya's strong hand on her shoulder stopped her from moving. Tsunade and Jiraiya watched on in silence, not outwardly showing what they were feeling.

Despite being hit full frontal by Pein's attack, Naruto still managed to land on his feet, albeit panting with blood running from the corner of his mouth.

"Cheh" Naruto said as he spat a gob of blood onto the ground. "I wasn't expecting that. You've got some pretty unique abilities there. I guess it's time for me to get a bit serious aswell."

Naruto raised his right arm and touched the left side of his collarbone, right where his chakra seal was.

"Fuu, houmen!" Naruto exclaimed forcefully, causing the seal beneath his cloak to disappear. The effect was immediate. A wave of immense chakra pushed out from Naruto, causing the wind to pick up and swirl around at insane speeds all across the battlefield. The buffetting winds blew over the edge of the ridge, forcing the spectators to take a step backwards. It was Sakura's first time experiencing Naruto's full chakra first-hand; to say she was shocked was an understatement.

'W-what the hell? How can Naruto possibly have this much chakra? It's like the times when the Kyuubi's chakra took over him, but it doesn't seem evil or oppressive. It's just insane!' Sakura thought, bewildered.

Clearly someone else shared her thoughts. "What in the name of Kami was that!?" came a shout from behind them.

The three spectators turned around in surprise to see Asuma approaching them, closely followed by quite a large group of people. Shikamaru, Ino, Chouji, Kiba, Lee, Hinata, Neji, TenTen of the Konoha 11 were approaching along with Kakashi and Maito Gai.

"That" said Jiraiyai proudly as the group rushed to join them at the ridge overlooking the basin, "was Naruto's full chakra being released."

All of the newcomers, aside from Kakashi, turned and stared at him like there was something wrong with him. Shikamaru, being informed of Naruto's return on the way to the fight, spoke up.

"How could that have been Naruto's chakra!? it was monstrous!" he questioned loudly. The blood drained from his face as a thought hit him. "It isn't..the Kyuubi is it?" he asked in a much quieter and more panicked voice.

Tsunade answered his question by shaking her head. "No, I don't know if you've experienced the Kyuubi's chakra before, but the one you just felt was distinctly different. There's no evil taint to it at all. This is the result of Naruto and the Kyuubi working together; this is both of their chakras mixed as one." the Hokage informed the group.

As the group tried to absorb this information, Kakashi spoke up.

"I don't mean to sound rude, but why aren't you helping him. He's apparently fighting people from Akatsuki and we're just up here watching?" he demanded in an unusually annoyed tone.

Jiraiya started to explain but was interrupted by Sakura.

"Naruto said he needed to fight alone this time." she said quietly, biting her lip. "This means a lot to him, so we are trusting him this time and he trusts us to respect his wishes. He's had his trust in people broken enough already don't you think Kakashi-sensei?"

Even though Sakura wasn't accusing Kakashi, he still flinched at her words. He was still regretting the fact that Naruto had been kept in the dark about Akatsuki and Gaara. Even though he was actually ordered to not tell Naruto he still felt partly responsible.

He lowered his head slightly. "Sakura's right, if this is what he wants then we should respect his wishes. We just have to believe in him."

The group all nodded reluctantly and took their positions along the edge to watch the fight, all hoping that Naruto managed to win and emerge unscathed. One person though, was hoping more than the rest.

* * *

Back down on the basin floor, Naruto's insane chakra had finally stabilized The air around him was still whirling around slightly, causing his cloak to flutter out behind him. The only obvious change to Naruto was that his whites of his eyes were now glowing golden, matching his hair.

Naruto grinned, it felt good to let his chakra loose once in a while, he hadn't done it for weeks. He cracked his neck nonchalantly, all pain from Pein's attack gone.

Even though there was no sign of it, Pein was surprised and slightly impressed by the chakra that Naruto was emitting. It was at the level of a Jinchuuriki that was totally paired with its Bijuu, perhaps even more so. Yet the boy had not transformed into a Bijuu like he knew other Jinchuurikis did when they released this level of chakra.

'This boy..is something else.' was the thought that drifted through the minds of members of Pein.

The leader spoke up. "Impressive chakra boy. How did you achieve it without releasing you Bijuu?" the man asked uncharacteristically.

Naruto smiled. "Let's just say I have a very good relationship with my inner demon." Naruto replied. "But I don't think you should be worrying about things like that right now."

Naruto's right hand dropped to the thin hilt of his sword. He pulled it slowly from the it's holder on his waist. Drawing the black sword out completely, Naruto lifted the sword and pointed it directly at the leader.

"You have some annoying abilities I'll grant you, but I have a suspicion that each one of you can only use one specific power; like summoning or that absorbing forcefield. The one of you with the forcefield moved in front of you to absorb the attack aimed at you. If you had that ability yourself he wouldn't of had to cover you. Also you all seem to be connected somehow, because each one of you seem to know where I am without looking at me directly. So I guess the simplest way to get around these problems is to just eliminate you one by one." Naruto deduced out loud.

The leader's eyes widened dramatically. This boy had been able to figure out so much about them in just a few minutes of combat. No-one had ever been able to analyse his abilities that fast.

In Naruto's head the Kyuubi was chuckling.

"_**About damn time boy, I've been waiting for you to let loose a bit. It's been too long." **_the Kyuubi said grinning.

_'Sorry to keep you waiting Kyuubi.'_ Naruto replied, chuckling inwardly.

Naruto continued to stare into the leader's eyes. "You better take this seriously from now on." Naruto commented in a quiet, confident voice.

The leader's emotionless mask shifted slightly as his eyes narrowed in anger. "Don't get cocky brat!" he yelled before breaking into a fast run, tearing across the field towards Naruto. As he neared Naruto the man pulled a short, black rod looking weapon from his sleeve and proceeded to lunge forward with it, intent on impaling it through Naruto's chest.

Naruto didn't even blink as he swung his one handed sword in short arc to intercept the incoming weapon. The leader's eyes widened as he saw his weapon sliced in half by the blonde Jinchuuriki's sword like it was butter. Wasting no time, the purple eyed man raised his hands shouting "Shinra Tensei!"

In response, Naruto swung his katana to meet the encroaching wave of power. As the two opposing forces clashed, chunks of earth below the combatants feet were ripped from the ground and flung aside in great volume. Naruto gritted his teeth as he pushed as much chakra as he could into his sword, causing the sword to become enveloped in a swirling black aura. Tense moments passed as both parties tried to overcome each other.

Suddenly, the Pein leader was thrown backwards with great force as Naruto's sword overcame his pushing forcefield accompanied by an explosion that rocked the area. Naruto shot forward to press the advantage but was cut off by some large, multiple headed dog summons. Naruto growled at the setback, but that's all the summons were; minor setbacks. Naruto became a blur as he flash stepped past the dogs, who disappeared into clouds of smoke as they went from two full dogs to four halves.

Finished with the summons, Naruto continued his rush at the leader of the group. However he was once again cut off by more of the dog summons. Naruto jumped back with narrowed eyes; there was now four snarling multiple headed dogs charging at him. With a combination of Rasengan and blistering sword slashes Naruto managed to kill the four dogs in under ten seconds.

He jumped backwards putting some distance between him and Pein. He was already suspicious that that wasn't the end of the dog summons and he wasn't dissapointed. This time eight dogs poofed into existence, ready to try and tear him apart.

'Every time I kill one, two more take its place no matter how fast I kill them.' Naruto hypothesised.

"I don't have time to play around any more." growled Naruto, annoyed. He held out his sword at arms length, pointing it past the advancing animals at the person who had summoned them. His sword began to emit the same swirling black aura as Naruto focussed his chakra into it. Naruto waited until the dogs were almost upon before acting.

"**Kagemori**!" Naruto shouted.

No sooner had he spoken when a pitch black shaft of energy the same thickness as his sword shot out from his blade at a ballistic speed, instantly impaling 3 of the attacking dogs and the member of Pein that had summoned them who was standing over fifty metres away. There was a slight pause as the dog summons halted their movements and then poofed out of existence.

Both the members of Pein and the spectators of the looked on in shock; it seemed to everyone that Naruto's sword has just extended to over fifty metres faster than anyone could see. The Pein member that had been impaled through the chest lifted up a shaking hand to try and grip the blade of energy to pull it out. He immediately realised his mistake when as saw as his hand came into contact with the blade he received a deep cut across his palm.

The leader of the group removed his gaze from the sight of the impaled man to look across at Naruto, who was stilling holding his sword at arms length.

"What is that ability boy?" questioned the ripple-eyed man, curiosity piqued.

Naruto gave a slight, proud smile. "This is my own original technique I came up with while I was training. I collect large amounts of chakra in my sword and then release it, forcing it to retain the shape of my blade. The result of the chakra being forced into such a small and thin shape is that it incredibly sharp and fast to shoot out. This is actually my first time using it in a real fight, you should be honoured." Naruto explained.

Finishing his speech, Naruto suddenly jerked his wrist causing his sword to cut diagonally downwards, running through the unfortunate man's chest and carving him into two pieces.

'One down, five to go.' thought Naruto somewhat triumphantly as his chakra infused blade returned to its normal length.

His victorious feeling didn't last long however, as one of the Pein members that hadn't engaged in the fight yet stepped forward. Naruto eyes narrowed as a large demonic looking face suddenly came into view next to the Pein member that he had killed. Suddenly the large head's mouth opened, sucking up the two pieces of the dead Akatsuki man. A few moments passed as the mouth closed and began to glow. Second later it opened again and, much to Naruto's shock, the man that he had previously killed walked out as if nothing had ever happened.

The leader of the group decided to speak up. "It does not matter how strong you think you are Jinchuuriki. We are on another level entirely to people like you. I'll congratulate you on the fact that you managed to indeed kill one of us, but it matters not when we can revive them in a matter of moments. You can not seem to see the difference in the levels of power between us, but I do not blame you. Someone of your calibre could not even begin to-" The man's bragging session was cut off as Naruto disappeared from his view.

"The difference in our powers you say? You're right, there is a difference." Naruto said, his voice coming from behind the leader.

The orange-haired man whirled around to see Naruto standing a few metres away from him with an overly large swirling Rasengan in one hand and his katana in the other. Naruto pulled his arm back, ready to smash the sphere of chakra into the man's face when the Pein member that could absorb attacks appeared in front of him, ready to absorb the spinning orb. Naruto just grinned; they had played right into his hands. Naruto suddenly fizzled out of existence, shocking all the Pein members.

"**S****okuryoku**** Bushin**. Another original technique that's made possible by flash stepping. What you just saw there was an after image." Naruto's voice explained, coming from about twenty metres away, behind the man that could apparently revive people from the dead. Six pairs of eyes barely had time to register where the blonde-haired boy was when Naruto smashed the real oversized ball of chakra into the man's back. The man didn't even have time to scream as his body was disintegrated by the immense chakra tearing at him.

As the man completely disappeared, Naruto stood up straight, swinging his sword over his shoulder and smiling as if nothing had happened.

"If my theory's right about each one of you having different powers, I'm guessing you can't revive each other any more." Naruto said in an amused tone. He swung his sword down in an arc so it end up hanging down by his side.

"Now." Naruto said in a much more serious manner, his eyes once again glowing golden and his chakra flaring. "Allow me to show _you_ the difference in our power."

The spectators up on the ridge could only watch on, speechless, as Naruto literally tore through Pein's members. As soon as he finished talking Naruto disappeared, reappearing in the air above the newly revived summoner. The summoner tried desperately to make the hand signs to summon a creature in defence but wasn't quite fast enough. Naruto's blade hummed down in a deadly arc, slicing the unfortunate man's arms off at the elbow. Not even giving the man time enough to deal with the pain from his arms, Naruto threw a devastating punch at his head sending the man flying back wards. To finished him off, Naruto raised his sword like a javelin and threw it after the flying man, impaling him through the heart.

Sensing another member of Pein coming up behind him Naruto ducked, avoiding the lethal metal rod weapon that was aimed at his head. Naruto swept his right leg out, catching the man under the knees and knocking him to the floor. Pressing the advantage Naruto dropped a heavy kick into the downed man's stomach causing the ground to crack underneath him.

Before he could finish the man off, he was interrupted by a long haired member of Pein who was trying to grab his head. Deciding that he definitely did not want to find out what new ability this man possessed, Naruto flash stepped sideways away from the man's hand and launched a kick into the side of man's head. Naruto was slightly surprised when the man caught the kick with his free hand and once again lunged for his head.

Naruto didn't have time to form a Rasengan and he didn't have his sword with him so he decided to try out a new technique he had been working on. He quickly focussed chakra the same way he did for flash stepping but instead of sending the chakra to his feet and legs he sent it to his arms and hands.

It had the desired effect. Naruto's arms became a blur as repetitively punched the long haired man at speeds to fast to see with the naked eye. After with standing five seconds of this onslaught, the heavily battered and broken man fell backwards onto his still downed team mate. Naruto used this opportunity of not being attacked to build up a powerful attack to kill both men at the same time.

A tiny whirling ball of chakra appeared in the palm of right hand, getting consistently larger and darker. By the time the ball was the size of a normal Rasengan it was almost completely black. Raising the spiralling orb above his head Naruto shouted "**Omoi Rasengan**!" before slamming it down upon the semi-conscious bodies of the piled up Pein members.

The rocky ground seem to turn to liquid as huge waves of rock and earth rose up and flew away from the centre of the impact, creating a large crater where now only Naruto stood. What remained of the two men after being crushed by the massive weight of Naruto's attack could hardly be described as people.

Jumping out of the crater with ease, Naruto landed and looked around and what enemies remained. Only three of six original members of Pein were left; the leader, the man who could absorb attacks, and a very strange looking person who's shape was humanoid but barely resembled a human.

Without waiting to say anything, the strange looking 'man' suddenly held up an arm which had suddenly sprouted mechanical looking attachments. The attachments proved to multiple missiles as they shot off the man's arm, careening towards the stationary Naruto.

'Shit this is tiring!' thought Naruto exasperatedly as took off at a fast pace towards his sword which was still embedded in one of the Pein's chest. Despite Naruto's speed, the missiles had almost caught up with him when Naruto reached his sword. As soon as his hand wrapped around the sword's bandaged hilt, Naruto used an excessive flash step to travel about fifty metres away from the missiles. His hopes of losing them by flash stepping far enough away were dashed when he saw the missiles change direction and started hurtling towards him again.

An idea hit him but he narrowed his eyes. 'This is gonna use up some chakra.' he thought reluctantly as he once again raised his sword up to arm's length, furrowing his eyebrows in concentration. He focused on the five missiles speeding towards, judging where they were going to be seconds later. A few moments later he tensed, yelling "**Kagemori**!". In the space of a second his blade extended and retracted five times, shooting out five pitch black chakra lances. All five shafts of energy hit the missiles, causing them to explode simultaneously.

Not finished yet though, Naruto held his arm out, pointing his sword to his side without turning to look. The Pein member that had launched the missiles was nearly one hundred metres away didn't even have time to react as he was impaled through the forehead by a hundred metre long shadow lance. The next moment, the strange mechanical Pein went out the same way that was of his team-mates had; cleaved into two pieces.

Naruto only paused for a second in astonishment when the man didn't erupt in a shower of blood, but mechanical parts. Shaking his head in wonder, Naruto crouched slightly and shot towards the leader once again, hoping to catch him unawares. Naruto didn't want this attack to be a repeat of last time, so instead of attacking with his sword he charged up an Oodama Rasengan with one hand to test out how the leader's pushing forcefield reacted to ninjutsu techniques.

Before he could reach the leader however, the other last remaining Pein member intercepted him, putting himself in front of the leader.

'I'm getting seriously sick of this guy' Naruto thought with gritted teeth while his Rasengan was reduced to nothing by the man's absorbing forcefield.

Naruto jumped back, thoroughly annoyed. He gripped his sword tight in his hands and made the typical two finger seal with his other hand. This was a way of channelling and focussing his chakra that he had discovered during his training. Because the seal wasn't being used to perform any jutsus it just drew out chakra. Something that would be considered a waste to most people who tried to conserve their chakra as much as they could. For Naruto though, it was a perfect way of channelling his immense chakra reserves.

After a few moments of concentration Naruto looked up at the man standing ten metres away.

"Absorb this." Naruto said simply before disappearing in a blur of motion.

For the next five seconds all anyone could see of Naruto was a blur of after-images encircling the member of Pein, who was almost invisible through the speeding blur of after-images that Naruto left in his wake.

Suddenly Naruto reappeared in the flesh five metres away, his back to the man with his sword held at arm's length pointing diagonally towards the sky.

"Flash Step Dance: **Issen Kirinuki**." Naruto said calmly, as the stationary man behind him suddenly erupted blood in large quantities from all over his body, collapsing, unmoving on the ground.

Naruto swung his sword to his side, flicking the leftover blood off it. He was panting slightly from using the Flash Step Dance; it used up a lot of chakra. Even though he regained chakra incredibly fast because of his and the Kyuubi's insane combined reserves, it still took it out of him a bit using such a powerful attack. Especially one he hadn't even used in combat before.

'Well I've killed five of them anyway, which means the only one left is-'

"**SHINRA TENSAI!**"

Naruto tried to react, swinging his sword behind him to try and catch the blast. It was pointless however, this force wave was way above the level that he was hit with before. Naruto felt like he was hit with a giant fist as the giant wave of energy smashed into him, sending him skidding across the ground towards the edge of the basin. Naruto managed to slam his sword into the ground mid-spin, halting his progress instantly. Naruto got up on one knee, spitting out a mouthful of blood. He looked around him in shock; the blast wave from the leader had effected nearly a quarter of the giant basin, leaving a huge 200 metre crater in the middle of the battlefield. Naruto looked up at the fast approaching remaining Pein member running towards. The man stopped about fifty metres away from Naruto, but even from there Naruto could see the look of absolute rage of the man's face.

Naruto spoke up first however, climbing to his feet.

"Can I just ask, Pein if that's what I'm supposed to call you, why you fight? It's obvious you are incredibly powerful. Someone of your calibre should be using their powers for the greater good of this world, not helping to destroy it." Naruto asked in a serious voice.

"Shut up you ignorant brat!" the man yelled vehemently, startling Naruto.

"Do you think you are someone who gets to choose which path is good and which is bad?" the man continued in a angry, raised voice.

"By your disapproving tone of voice I can tell that you believe you walk the path of righteousness; that you fight for peace. I fight for the same thing! You think that you can actually achieve peace by fighting a one-sided fight against all others and win? That line of thinking is utterly ignorant! You will never achieve peace like that! By fighting a war and winning it what do you achieve? Nothing except causing more hatred from families and friends of the people that you killed. Your version of peace isn't real peace; it is peace only for you and your people! And it won't last! The hatred that you caused by fighting will rise up and another fight will be fought, giving birth to more hatred. The cycle is never ending! The only way to stop this endless cycle of hatred is to eradicate any reason for people to hate each other. That is my reason for fighting Uzimaki Naruto! I am a true fighter for peace and I have given everything for that cause! I have reached levels that people thought were impossible and then surpassed them. For my fight for peace, I BECAME A GOD!" the man finished the last sentence shouting in a booming voice that even carried to the spectators watching the paused fight.

Pein raised him arms slowly above his head and Naruto could feel the increase in pressure already even from a distance. Pein suddenly threw back his head.

"**PLANETARY DESTRUCTION!**" he screamed at the top of his lungs.

As soon as he had said the words, humongous chunks of of earth were ripped from the ground and began elevating through the air towards a spot high in the sky above the leader's head. It felt like a major earthquake had hit the area, even causing some serious tremors to reach Konoha making more than a few people start to panic.

The basin they had been fighting in was literally being torn apart and slowly but surely the circle of destruction was getting larger. Naruto, who had remained stationary on the ground thoughout the turmoil, looked up at the edge of the basin. He knew people had followed him from Konoha; he had been expecting it and he could guess from the chakra levels as to who they were. What he didn't expect was all the other people that had turned up; most of the people from the old Konoha 11 and their senseis. His jaw tightened as he saw a flash of pink-hair up on the ride, courtesy of his Kyuubi enhanced vision.

Seemingly unaware of the apocalyptal destruction happening around him, Naruto looked down at his feet. He had told everyone that this was his fight and to stay out of it, but now they were getting dragged into it by his enemies incredible power. He was sure that Jiraiya and Tsunade could fend for themselves, but he wasn't so sure about everyone else up there. Naruto suddenly felt the gravitational pull start to effect him as chunks of earth were torn out around him. He jammed his sword point first into the ground, keeping himself planted. He didn't really have that many options left; he could probably manage it as he was if he was by himself with no-one to think about, but his friends were in danger, soon to be mortal danger. Images flashed across his mind of Sakura being pulled up, screaming, towards the monolithic compacted earth ball that was forming in the sky.

'No! I won't let that happen!' Naruto thought angrily, closing his eyes briefly.

"_**Use it.**_" spoke up the Kyuubi suddenly inside his head.

Naruto opened his eyes quickly. '_What, against him? I really didn't want to pull it out so early in my fights, especially with everyone watching._' Naruto replied mentally.

"_**Tch.**_" the Kyuubi snorted. "_**It's not like your powers were going to stay a secret for long. Plus this man's monologue is irritating me. Show him our power; real power.**_"

Naruto was silent, but he had come to a decision. The man's speech had angered him aswell. Plus the fact that wasn't going to risk any of his friends getting hurt in any way. In they did and he knew he could have prevented it, he would be driven insane with guilt.

Naruto's thoughts were interrupted by a shout from the leader of Pein who was now floating some fifty metres above the ground, hands still above his above his head controlling the massive gravitational forces.

While Naruto had been conversing with his inner demon, the ripple-eyed man had glanced down at him. Seeing Naruto with his head bowed and motionless the man had smirked, thinking Naruto was the picture of defeat.

"You see Jinchuuriki? You never stood a chance!" he yelled triumphantly. "You cannot stand up to a God, no matter how hard you try. I will defeat you and then I will make you know pain by destroying your pathetic friends that have come to see you-"

"A god you say?" Naruto questioned in a calm voice that still managed to carry across to his enemy.

Naruto continued without lifting his head, however chakra had started visibly swirling around him once again.

"You say I am ignorant in my fight for peace and that I am ignorant for believing that my path is the right one, yet you openly call yourself a god." Naruto said in the same calm, controlled voice.

Naruto's head suddenly shot up, his golden eyes ablaze with anger.

"THAT IS THE EPITOME OF IGNORANCE!" he roared. Some of the Kyuubi's chakra leaked through, giving his voice a more animalistic quality and bringing it to a lower octave.

"I can say the same thing to you that you said to me." Naruto continued in a lower voice, still keeping it loud enough to be heard above the on going maelstrom.

"What gives you the right to decide which path a person chooses to take is right? You think because you have gained incredible power and are stronger than most other people that you can call yourself a god? Don't be naive! You have become drunk on your own power and you have forgotten your place. You have forgotten the most important rule of life."

Naruto brought his sword up with his arm extended, holding the blade horizontally across in front of him.

"There is always someone stronger than you." Naruto finished quietly. He raised his other arm placing his fingertips in the flat edge of the end of his blade, which was now glowing orange to match his eyes.

The whirling chakra around him suddenly dropped off, allowing Naruto's next soft words to be audible.

"Go wild, Kurama."

Even though the watchers of the fight had been expecting some output of power from Naruto, nothing could have possibly have prepared them for what happened next. The level of chakra that exploded from Naruto made his previous chakra release seem minute in comparison. The huge chunks of earth that were rising around him were immediately decimated, dissolving to rubble instantly. The explosion of immense energy reached all corners of the giant basin and the spectators were forced to jumped back as the edge of the ridge they were perched on started to crumble on the pressure.

Pein, while still hovering stationary in the air, had eyes the size of dinner plates as he withstood the incredible pressure from being so close to the epicentre of the explosion. He tried to catch a glance at his enemy, but the Jinchuuriki was invisible in a seemingly solid spinning orb of energy.

Sakura and indeed everyone of the spectators were speechless as they tried to comprehend what was happening in front of them. They had known that Naruto had become stronger from his time training, they had even accepted that he had become incredibly strong. But none of them expected anything of this magnitude.

'He's on a completely different level to us.' thought a dazed Sakura. 'But so is that man. I've never seen a battle like this before. Their powers are so far above ours, it's almost like watching two gods fighting.'

Suddenly Naruto's chakra stabilised and a final burst of energy shot out in all directions from the blonde-haired Jinchuuriki, cracking the ground all across the battlefield. The rushing winds and swirling chakra dissipated as well, allowing Naruto to finally become visible to everyone. Though it would seem impossible, everyone's eyes widened even further. Whatever they had expected, it wasn't this.

The most noticeable thing was the nine large, white, flowing tails that were sprouting from Naruto's tail bone. The next thing was the obvious changes all over the boy's body. It was almost if he was wearing an armour of the Kyuubi's skeleton over his body, but the new body parts were completely solid as seemed to be part of him. Naruto's cloak had completely disappeared; his body now covered by the odd white skin like armour. His arms and legs were had what looked like light protective plates running down them. His hands looked normal apart from having three inch black claws that ran seamlessly off the end of his fingers. His feet were bare like his hands with similar, slightly shorter black claws protruding from where his toenails were before.

His abdomen and chest areas were free of any armour and his heavily muscled body was open to the air, as well as his neck. His shoulders had what looked like a curved white armour plate fitted to them with a twisted horn looking spike coming from each one pointing diagonally upwards. The last biggest change was his face, or more like what was on his face. Half of Naruto's head and face was as it was before, complete with spiky, blonde hair and whisker marks. The other side of his head though was covered with what looked like a mask made out of the same solid white material that covered most of his body. The half mask looked exactly like a small replica of the demon fox's face fitted for Naruto's head, complete with a long raised fox ear and the start of a muzzle and snout. The mask had an eye whole as well, where a blazing golden eye was easily visible through. Both Naruto's eyes where completely golden now except for the pupil and seemed to radiate power. Naruto's sword had also seemingly disappeared during the transformation as well.

The man who called himself Pein, meanwhile, was shaking. Shaking in fury. Naruto's previous speech had hit him hard, which had caused him to become even more enraged. He had spent most of his life pursuing his goal of peace and now this boy had made him question his beliefs and goals with a few simple sentences. Something snapped in the man and his reason went out the window.

"**DIE!**" he screamed as he threw his arms forward. The now insanely large compressed ball of earth and rock moved forward and started plummeting downwards in the direction that the man had signalled; down on top of Naruto.

Sakura caught her breath as she saw what the man was doing. It didn't even cross her mind that if something that large and heavy crashed into the the ground that her and the people around her were too close to be able to avoid being hit by the resulting destruction. She was only concerned with her team mates safety.

Naruto, however, did not seem concerned at all as he turned his golden gaze upwards to the fast approaching monolithic orb of earth. It was so large that the whole area around Naruto had gone dark; it had blocked out the sun. Even though nobody could hear him Naruto spoke up quietly.

"I expected more from a god." he murmured expressionlessly.

He slowly raised one hand above his head, pointing towards the epic meteor. He clawed his hand, his long black claws nearly meeting in the centre of his palm. A small ball of pitch black energy formed quickly in centre of this space, spiraling off black shaft of energy as it grew steadily larger in his clawed hand. Naruto's hand slowly unclawed as the orb of energy became larger, soon becoming triple the size of a normal Rasengan. Naruto's face remained expressionless as the huge sphere of earth came even closer. Just as it came within fifty metres of Naruto, he spoke.

"**Makkuro Bijuudama.**" he said shortly.

The swirling orb of energy in his outstretched hand suddenly compressed to a tiny size then exploded outwards. The energy of the attack was not refined and direct like a Rasengan; it was completely raw and savage. The beam of black energy exploded outwards from Naruto's palm in a funnel like shape, enveloping all of the massive meteor heading towards him. The monolithic ball was completely torn apart and destroyed on an atomic level by the power of the huge blast. The blast itself carried on past the fragmented ball and up into the sky, growing larger the further it traveled higher. The blast finally dissipated, but not before clearing the sky above of all clouds, leaving the sky completely blue and blemish free.

Naruto lowered his hand to side, sighing slightly. His keen eyes noticed a figure falling headfirst from the sky, trailing blood. When it crashed into the ground Naruto closed his eyes.

'_It's finished.._' he thought. He wasn't happy though, the victory had seemed hollow to him.

"_**Tch. Puny god.**_" commented the Kyuubi inside Naruto's head. "_**Even so it felt good to let loose Kit, thanks for that.**_" Naruto could almost see the malicious grin the fox's face.

Naruto flash stepped suddenly, clearing the distance between him and his fallen enemy in an instant. He gazed down at the dead man who had obviously been caught by the edge of Naruto's attack; the left half of his body was completely gone and the area around him was drenched in blood. His head was still intact though, and as Naruto looked upon it he was slightly shocked. The man's last facial expression before he died was one of complete lack of expression. The man had known he was going to die; this was proven by the fact that he had closed his eyes before he died. But even so his face was expressionless, not something you would expect of someone who knew they were about to die.

Naruto bent down and frowned. The man had an awful lot of large piercings on his face, too much for them to be cosmetic. Naruto remembered that all of the group had had the same piercings as well. Curiosity piqued, Naruto reached out and softly touched one of the rod-like piercings. Immediately he felt a presence of a foreign chakra surging through it. Naruto quickly removed his hand and touched another piercing. His eyes narrowed as he realised what the piercings were.

"_**What is it Kit?**_" questioned the Kyuubi in a curious voice.

'_Those piercings...they're chakra receivers. This man and all the rest of the group were being controlled by someone else this entire time. And that person is still alive._' replied Naruto in an intrigued voice.

He stood up and glanced up towards the ridge of the basin three hundred metres away. He could still see his team mates and friends up there watching him. He smiled slightly; they were safe, for now.

Still in his skeletal Kyuubi form he repeated the familiar action of focusing chakra to his feet. His disappeared into a flash step, reappearing a few seconds later on the very edge of the basin in front of his peers.

Everyone jumped at Naruto's sudden appearance; how the hell had he travelled such a distance in just a few seconds? Naruto felt everyone gazing at him in awe and even slight trepidation. Naruto felt a slight pang of hurt shoot through him at their apprehensive looks. He should have expected something like this; he did look a lot like a humanoid Kyuubi at the moment. Even so, his eyes drooped slightly as he looked down at the ground to avoid his friend's stares.

Sakura was the first to see and realise what had caused Naruto's mood to visibly drop and she mentally kicked herself. She knew the look that he had on his face. It was the same hurt look he adopted when he was younger and people used to treat him differently because he was the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki. And saying 'treated differently' was a massive understatement. She couldn't help the slightly unsure look cross her face when Naruto appeared before her suddenly, looking like the Kyuubi. Even so she hated herself for even thinking like that since she knew how much those looks hurt her friend.

She took a step forward and was about to say something to Naruto when he suddenly spoke up, breaking the silence.

"This isn't over yet. The group I fought were being controlled by someone through chakra receivers. The person contrlling them would have to be close by to have this level of control over them. I already have an idea as to where the controller is. I'm going to find them." he said in a low and controlled voice.

Naruto turned around, ready to take off when he was stopped by a soft hand grabbing his arm. He turned his head around slowly to see his pink-haired team mate looking up at him. His heart lifted slightly as even though Sakura was faced with his half Kyuubi mask staring at her, she was still smiling warmly at him.

"I-I just want to say thank you, Naruto." The girl said quietly,

Naruto raised his eyebrows even though only one was visible. "Thank you for what?" he asked shortly, but not unpleasantly.

Sakura blushed slightly as she let go of his arm and cross her hands behind her back.

"Thank you for winning and coming back to m- I mean us alive. You had us really worried." she said simply, still smiling at the boy.

Naruto slowly smiled, then broke out into his familiar, wide grin. Even though Sakura could only see half the smile, her heart soared as she saw his eyes twinkle with happiness at her statement.

Naruto turned back around leaving his back facing the girl.

"Don't be silly Sakura-chan. I promised I'd come back." he said before disappearing into a flash step and heading towards a huge, unnatural looking tree in the distance, with a wide smile still on his face.

* * *

**AN:** PHEW im glad this chapter's finally finished. I'm sorry that there wasn't much character interaction or emotional-ish stuff in this chapter but the fight took SO LONG that I really didn't want to try and squash anything else in there. I promise there will be next chapter, along with a twist most people won't be expecting;) Again I hope this chapter was up to standard and was enjoyable. PLEASE review even if you already have for previous chapters; even short messages to tell me what you think about each chapter helps me a lot and keeps me motivated.

Thanks again!

Move List:

- Fuu, houmen ~ Seal, release

- Kagemori ~ Shadow Lance

- Makkuro Bijuudama ~ Black Tailed Beast Bomb

- Issen Kirinuki ~ One Thousand Cuts

- Sokuryoku Bushin ~ Speed Clone

- Omoi Rasengan ~ Heavy Spiraling Sphere

- Oodama Rasengan ~ Great Ball Rasengan


	7. Chapter 7 - A Change of Heart

**Saving the world**

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, Kishimoto does blah blah blah..

**AN:** FINALLY a new chapter:P A big apology to everyone, I forgot to tell you that I would be gone for over a week because it was leavers (schoolies) week here in Australia. A pretty legitimate reason for a delay I think:P

Thanks so much for all the positive feedback I got for the last chapter, I'm glad most you enjoyed it:) I hope you found Naruto's power believable and that the fight lived up to expectations. There will be hardly any action in this chapter, it will mostly be talking between characters and character development.

Thanks again to everyone who read and reviewed; over 110 reviews now! I love hearing from you guys and honestly the more feedback I get the more motivated I am to write *_hint hint_;)*.

And on the issue of whether this story will be a harem or not, it definitely will NOT. The Ayame thing seems to have made quite a few of you think (or worry) that this is turning into one. Don't worry, it is a strictly NaruSaku pairing and any moves being pulled by other people is just to make the two of them recognise their own feelings. Why do I not want it to be a harem? The reason is that I don't believe that a in depth, emotional and memorable relationship can be achieved though a harem. There have been stories I've read with harems that are really good but the relationship aspect of the story always seems like a competition. I don't want that:)

Well anyway here's chapter 7, I hope you enjoy it!

**Chapter 7 - A Change of Heart**

The world was a veritable blur around Naruto as he flew through the forest outside of Konoha. 'Flew' was pretty much literally true as the jinchuuriki was barely even needing to touch the branches as he rocketed past. He was still in his released Kyuubi form from his fight with Pein that ended about ten minutes ago. Naruto had never kept this form on long enough to use it to travel somewhere, and therefore was quite surprised at the major effect it seemed to be having to be having on his jumping power. He noticed that every time he went to push off from a thick tree branch, (which wasn't nearly as often as he would usually have to), he was mostly pushing off from consolidated chakra beneath his feet rather than the branch itself.

'Well that's definitely interesting...' Naruto wondered thoughtfully. 'No time to think about it now though, I'm pretty much there.'

Where 'there' was, was a huge tree on top of a very large hill. When Naruto had touched one of the chakra receivers in the Pein leader's body he felt a distinct chakra signature flowing through it. Due to his released form's increased chakra sensing abilities, Naruto was able to pinpoint where the chakra was coming from. Ergo, Naruto was now standing a few metres away from the trunk of the massive tree, the source of the chakra signature.

Naruto gazed up at the huge tree looming above him. It was obvious standing so close that the 'tree' was not natural. To Naruto's perceptive golden eyes he could see that the whole structure was made out of thousands of small rectangular shapes infused with chakra. He concentrated harder, closing his eyes and willing his senses to feel the inside of the huge tree trunk.

After a few moments of concentration, Naruto discerned that there were two separate chakra signatures inside the apparently hollow tree. The first he had expected; it was the same chakra he had sensed through Pein's chakra receivers. However, if his senses were correct, there was another person standing beside the person he had been tracking.

Naruto raised his only visible eyebrow slightly; he had not expected to find anyone else but the person who had been controlling the six bodies of Pein. This was the person who openly considered himself a god, why would he need a partner with him?

'Well I'm about to find out anyway.' thought Naruto as he reached out with his clawed hands towards the tree trunk. His long, black claws pierced the weird skin of the tree like a warm knife through butter and in one movement he tore a sizeable opening in the trunk. As he warily stepped through the opening he noticed that 'bark' of the tree was in fact made up of what seemed to be layer upon layer of small pieces of paper. He didn't dwell too much on that mystery, he had more important things to think about. Such as the gloomy shapes he could see, features hidden by the darkness.

As he fully pushed into the huge hollow trunk his eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness. His nine large fox tails of his released form had made the entrance into the tree larger, shedding more light, literally, on the situation. Naruto could now see what was in front of him relatively clearly, and whatever he had been expecting it wasn't this.

The first thing he noticed was a large mechanical, spider-like contraption that took up most of floor space of the area. Naruto had never seen anything like it before and would have stared at it longer if his attention hadn't been immediately drawn away by the hunched up shape seemingly attached to machine. With a jolt, Naruto realised that the bent over shape was actually a person, a sickly pale and skinny person. The man's face, Naruto guessed it was a man, was hidden by his own dull red hair that was drooped over the front of his face.

There was a slight movement which drew Naruto's attention to the other occupant of the 'room'. A woman clad in the glaringly obvious Akatsuki robe had put herself between him and the obviously sick man. Naruto took in her features at a glance. She had relatively short light purple hair, accentuated by a purple origami flower attached to the side of her head. Even in a situation such as this Naruto could see that the women was strikingly attractive. Her pale, slender face made her golden eyes stand out and her raised cheekbones made her look somehow high class. Her beauty was somewhat ruined, Naruto thought, by the anger and apprehension that showed so clearly on her face. Even though the woman was in a defensive stance Naruto could see her taking in his appearance the flicker of fear in her bright eyes.

Before either of Naruto or the woman could say anything, a deep, quiet voice cut in.

"Konan...don't. If he wanted to kill us we would already be dead."

Naruto started as he realised the voice had come from the prone figure attached to the machine.

The woman known as Konan was instantly at the man's side, reaching up to gently touch his shoulder.

"Nagato, don't exert yourself any more. Your body can't ta-" Konan murmured softly before being cut off by a painfully thin raised hand.

"Don't fret Konan, I'm fine now. I just need to recover for a bit." the red-haired man replied in the same monotone voice as he slowly raised his body to an upright position. He immediately broke down into a fit of heavy fit of coughing and slumped over again.

Naruto sweat dropped slightly.

'Fine my ass. He looks like he's ready to keel over at any moment.' he thought dryly.

His thoughts were cut off immediately as the man managed to raise his head fully without succumbing to another coughing fit. If Naruto had being paying attention he would have been shocked to see that the man's ribs and other chest bones were easily visible he was so thin. However, Naruto was only paying attention to one thing; the man's eyes.

"So it was you then, the one that was controlling those bodies." Naruto said in a low voice, staring into the man's purple, ripple-patterned eyes.

The red-haired man nodded slightly even though it wasn't a question.

"Yes Uzamaki Naruto, I am the person who controls, or controlled, the group known as Pein. I suppose you are worthy of that knowledge since you are the first person to ever best me in a fight." the crippled man answered, his voice slightly gaining in power the more he talked.

"You've found me, you know I was the real enemy all along, yet you do not kill me. Why is that?" he continued, his purple eyes boring into Naruto's.

Naruto met his gaze frankly. "I want to know how you became the way you are." he said shortly.

Nagato's eyes widened slightly. He had expected the Jinchuuriki to say many things, but this was not one of them.

"What do you mean?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "I mean what did it take for you to believe in such a warped sense of logic. What did it take for you to honestly believe that destroying thousands of innocent lives can possibly bring about peace. I want to know that."

It was Nagato's turn to narrow his eyes in anger. "What did it take you say? All it took was for me to finally see just what kind of place the world really is. I will tell you my story Uzumaki and then maybe you can understand what true pain is and why I see the world the way I do."

Over next half an hour Nagato proceeded to retell all of the events from his amazingly sad and unpleasant life to Naruto. He told the him of how his parents were killed by Leaf ninja when his was a small child. How he had almost died of starvation before he met two young children his own age; Konan and Yahiko. How, much to Naruto's surprise, the three children had come across the three legendary Sannin of the Leaf; Jiraiya, Tsunade and Orochimaru. Even more of a shock to Naruto he learnt that Jiraiya had stayed behind for three years to tutor the three orphans.

The woman, Konan, who was standing beside Nagato, was smiling slightly at the memories of her, Yahiko and Nagato's years of training under the Toad Sannin. The smile abruptly turned into a hard straight line when Nagato began to talk about the three now grown up orphan's fight with Hanzo the Salamander of the Rain.

Nagato's voice started to quaver as he relived his best friend's death. Konan had lowered her head and silent tears could been seen flowing down her face. Naruto himself grimaced as he learnt of the horrible decision the Nagato had had to make; choose between Konan's life or Yahiko's, the two people that meant the most to him in the world. Naruto's heart clenched painfully as Nagato finished his story in a quiet voice, almost whispering of how Yahiko had impaled himself on Nagato's blade to save his friends. Naruto realised that this Yahiko was a rare type of person. One that had had noble goals and dreams that he would fight to death to see come true, but would also sacrifice himself to save his friends without hesitation. Naruto closed his eyes and paid his respects silently to the man that he had never known. He had no reason to doubt what Nagato was saying as he could see how emotionally distraught telling the story had made the red-haired man and the petite woman.

As Nagato's story came to an end the room was silent apart from the irregular muffled sobs from Konan. Nagato paused for a moment to take in a few shuddering breaths before speaking again. When his breathing had stabilised the red head looked up and locked his pain-filled eyes with Naruto's.

"Now do you see, Uzumaki, why I see the world the way I do? I can see the truth because I have felt true pain and lived a life of suffering. Because I can see the kind of place the world really is, I know what is needed to be done to fix it. We need to destroy all reason for hatred and start fresh."

Naruto lowered his head at the older man's words. His reaction and emotions were masked by the shaggy blonde locks that fell down across his face. Keeping his head down, Naruto replied in a quiet voice.

"I understand that you and your partner have had a incredibly hard life and all I can say is I'm sorry that you had to go through so much suffering. But.."

Naruto raised his head, his flashing eyes shocking Nagato. His golden eyes were a mixture of sadness, anger and incredible loneliness.

"But." Naruto repeated. "You think you're the only ones that have experienced pain? That you're the only ones that have had a hard life? Let me tell you a bit about my life and then see if you think I've experienced true pain or not."

It was now Nagato's and Konan's turn to sit there silently bewildered at the atrocious short life that Naruto had been through. Naruto started from his earliest memory; of being alone, crying in his room in the orphanage because the wardens made sure no one had anything to do with him. He went on describe how he was beaten by his fellow orphans when they grew a bit older and how when he felt the beatings got to an unbearable level he left to live on the streets. He lived off scraps and what he could steal and took shelter in any little alcove he could find.

Konan was not an emotional young woman; it took a lot to make her cry and become visibly upset. But when Naruto got to the story of how when he was five years old a man had found him starving , looking through his outside bin for scraps of food and savagely beat him, she began to feel quite sick and let out an involuntary sob.

The story looked like it was picking up when the third Hokage had found the half dead boy on a street corner and immediately tried to help him. Naruto told of how he was given his own apartment and a weekly allowance for food. Even then though the torture didn't stop. While Naruto's physical wounds had healed and he was no longer starving, he was severely emotionally damaged. Spending his entire life hated and completely alone was taking its toll on him. He desperately craved attention; he needed it. SO he did what any other young boy would, he acted up. And indeed people did start to notice him more, if only to hate him more. At 8 years old Naruto had no idea of the beast inside of him and therefore he had no idea why everyone seemed to hate him so much. It just became a constant of life to him.

Inevitably, Naruto spiralled into a deep depression, incredibly unhealthy and sad for someone as young as he was. It became so bad that thoughts of suicide became n increasingly attractive option. One night he took a kitchen knife that he had been given by the third Hokage and held it out in front of him, the point nearly touching the area over his heart. Only his childish dream of becoming the Hokage stopped him. He decided, after a massive crying fit, that it was pathetic for him to give up without even trying to accomplish his one goal.

The next day Naruto had joined the ninja academy and that's where his life hit a turning point. He slowly made somewhat friends with three of his classmates; Shikamaru, Chouji and Kiba. He then became a dear friend to his teacher Iruka. His life was at an all time high when he was a part of Team 7. He met Sasuke, a boy his age that had a similar situation to him and he also met Sakura, a girl that in time he came to adore. Naruto had acted like an idiot and like Sasuke annoyed him to no end, but in reality he was crying in happiness inside. He finally felt like he belonged. Those years of going on missions, arguing with his teammates and shouting at Kakashi, his sensei, were the best of his short life. However all that changed when Sasuke decided to leave the village in search of power.

Sasuke had become Naruto's best friend, so Naruto did what any best friend would; he went after him. A furious battle ensued between the two, ending with Sasuke punching a hole though Naruto's chest and leaving him to die. Luckily Naruto had been saved by Kakashi in time, but he was not sure he wanted to be. His best friend had just tried to kill him.

Yet before Naruto could give up he remembered Sakura crying, begging for him to bring Sasuke back for her. His kind heart overruled his shattered emotions and he made a promise to himself and to Sakura that he would bring Sasuke back. Jiraiya had told him that the criminal group Akatsuki would only be after him for his inner beast in three years and had offered Naruto to come on a training trip with him for those three years to become stronger. Naruto had readily accepted, knowing he would need to be stronger if he wanted to bring Sasuke back.

Much like Nagato had, Naruto quietened as he reached the end of his story. Of how he had returned from his extended training trip to find out that he had been lied to and that the Akatsuki had captured and killed all the Jinchuuriki apart from the himself and Killer Bee. And how he was told that his old team-mate and best friend Sasuke had tried to to kill Sakura.

"The day after I was told that is today. The day the you invaded Konoha. The rest, as they say, is history." Naruto finished in a monotone.

Nagato was speechless. He had never thought there would have been anyone in the world that had been through as many hardships as the boy before him. And through it all he didn't waver, he didn't lose himself to the anger and sadness.

'Like I have.' realised Nagato with a painful jolt.

It was silent for about a minute in the makeshift hideout, no-one really knowing how to respond. It was Nagato that broke the silence however.

"Naruto, can I ask you a question?" asked Nagato looking down at his lap.

Naruto didn't fail to notice that he had be called by his first name for the first time.

"What is it?" he replied.

Nagato looked up. "How would you bring about peace? How would you deal with all the hatred in this world?" he asked almost pleadingly, his patterned eyes imploring Naruto to answer.

Naruto saw the desperation in the man's eyes and immediately took pity. This was a man that embodied was he himself could have easily become. All it would of taken is for Naruto to not have people around him that he cared about and he could have easily walked the path of revenge.

'Just like Sasuke.' Naruto thought sadly.

Naruto thought deeply about the thin man's question. Naruto came to a decision; the man before him deserved an honest answer.

"Honestly" Naruto began. "I don't have a definite answer. I don't think anyone does. I don't even know if true peace can even exist. All I know is that anyone who threatens what little peace and happiness that we do have is wrong and that those people have to be dealt with. What the Akatsuki is doing is wrong. Your aims are wrong. You can't achieve peace through destroying everything or ruling over everything like a tyrant. Everyone who strives for peace has work together to find the the answer for your question. People like you and me have a responsibility. We know what it's like to feel pain and sorrow and we have the powers to prevent that same pain affecting other people. I would have thought after the life you've lived that you'd want to protect and help as many people as possible, not destroy them."

Nagato listened to Naruto's speech wide-eyed and by the end his eyes were squeezed shut and his fists were clenched.

"Y-You're right. I have been a fool. I am sorry Konan." the red head said dejectedly.

Konan's head snapped up sharply. "Don't be sorry Nagato. I've realised what we have been doing is wrong and I am just as much at fault as you are. Don't blame yourself, I followed you of my own free will."

Nagato shook his head. "No. I have led you down a path that has been spitting on Yahiko's name. This whole time I have been trying to destroy what Yahiko worked so hard to create. I have failed both him and Jiraiya-sensei by being blinded by my own hatred and desire for revenge. I am pathetic!" By the end of Nagato's self depreciating speech he was trembling quite violently.

He suddenly stopped and fixed Naruto with a supremely sad stare.

"Naruto, finish what you came here to do. I don't deserve to remain on this Earth any longer, I've damaged it enough." he said in a soft, forlorn voice.

"Nagato NO! You can't just give up-" Konan began shouting.

"Exactly." Naruto said sharply, cutting the irate woman off.

As both young adults looked at him confusedly Naruto continued.

"Just as she says, you can't just give up now. I'll admit that I did come here with ending your life in mind, but now...I just couldn't do it." the blonde haired youth said in an emotional voice.

Naruto looked down at his feet. "I want to stay mad at you. I mean you're the leader of the group that killed one of my best friends and nearly all of the Jinchuuriki. I should hate you, but I just can't. Because of your severely stuffed up life you truly believed that what you were doing was right and that it would actually bring true peace. That's not the sign of someone that is truly evil."

Naruto took a deep breath and looked up at the the shocked looking red-haired man in front of him with a determined glint in his eyes.

"I think that if you understand now how your version of true peace was wrong and want to continue Yahiko's dream, you should stay alive and fight for it. Giving up because you have failed so far won't fix anything."

As he was talking Naruto's Fox Release form was slowly dissolving and dissipating into chakra that travelled to his hip, slowly reforming his black chokuto (a chokuto is basically a katana with a straight edge). His body slowly returned to its normal state, his dark grey cloak reforming over his body, albeit with major patches torn from it. Naruto's mask was the last thing to disappear revealing his trademark foxy grin plastered across his face.

"Live on, both on you. Keep on fighting in Yahiko's name. Keep on fighting so that when your time of death comes, you can look back on your life with a smile and feel proud of what you achieved!"

He raised his arm in front of him, his thumb up, completing the infamous pose.

Nagato and Konan looked at the boy in front of them in complete bewilderment. For them it seeing Yahiko in a different body. The blonde haired boy had the same disarming, caring charm that had been one of Yahiko's greatest attributes.

'The power to change people..' thought Nagato, too shocked to reply straight away.

'In a matter of a few hours he has beaten me in a fight, spared my life even after I tried to kill him, and changed my entire outlook on life.' the red head smiled warmly for the first time in years. 'This man..'

"Naruto Uzumaki, for whatever value it holds, I apologies and thank you from the bottom of my heart." Nagato said, finally speaking up.

"I don't know what I've done to deserve to be spared and forgiven by you, but I will take this opportunity to do just what you said. I will fight for what Yahiko wanted since he is not here to do it himself. You have saved me from my blindness and for that I am eternally grateful." Nagato announced sincerely before doing his best to bow while trapped from the waist down in his machine.

Naruto was surprised, but pleasantly so. This was better than he could have hoped. The man before him had literally had a complete change of heart. His heart surged in hope; if he could cure Nagato of his revenge-driven madness, maybe he could do the same with Sasuke.

Nagato wasn't finished yet though. He raised himself up from his bow, still smiling.

"For what it's worth, I would like you to know that I have decided to no longer be a part of Akatsuki

as of now and that if you want, you can consider me your ally. I can't speak for Konan, but I am prepared to help you in anyway I can in your quest for peace."

Konan cleared her throat and spoke up.

"I'm in the same boat as Nagato. You may not realise how much you have done for us Uzumaki-san but I want to know that I will be forever grateful. You can count on me as well if you need help, for anything at all." The purple haired woman said with a shy smile.

Naruto smile grew until it covered most of his face and his hand went to the back of his head, scratching nervously.

"Ehe I didn't really do that much but thank you, I'll take you both up on that offer." he said warmly to the pair in front of him.

Nagato returned his smile.

"Good to hear, and you did plenty believe me."

The man's face suddenly became serious and he thought of something.

"Uzumaki-san I'd love to stay and talk our plans but we cannot talk safely right now." Nagato said quickly. "The spy member of Akatsuki, Zetsu, was undoubtedly watching the fight and is most likely watching this tree from some position not too far away. Konan has a teleportation technique ready, but it would be in our benefit to fool the Akatsuki into thinking that you killed us."

Naruto's smile faded, his face turning into a serious, business-like expression. He nodded curtly. "What do you have in mind?" he asked curiously.

"Everyone in Akatsuki is tracked through their rings." Nagato explained holding up his hand with a ring on it.

"Even though I am the leader the same applies to me and Konan. My plan is to have you use an attack powerfully enough to completely destroy this tree and everything in it. Just before you use the attack we will leave via Konan's teleportation ability. If we leave our rings here as well for you to destroy, I think it will be enough to fool Zetsu into thinking you utterly destroyed our bodies."

"Sounds good to me." Naruto said with a grin. "Lucky I've got just enough chakra left for one more attack. Are you ready to go now?" He asked looking towards Konan.

She nodded and immediately made a seal with her hands, causing her body to break apart into thousands of small pieces of paper. Just before her arms dissolved she pulled off her Akatsuki ring and tossed it to Naruto. Naruto nearly missed catching the ring as he stood entranced as the paper started to swirl around Nagato and his machine, glowing slightly.

'What an amazing ability..' thought Naruto in awe.

Nagato pulled off his own ring and chucked it to the Jinchuuriki, who deftly caught it.

"We have much to talk about Uzumaki-san as I think you'll agree. Would meeting us here in this spot in a weeks time be agreeable to you? I think that would give enough time for everything to calm down a bit don't you think?" Nagato suggested as his body was slowly blocked from view by the rapidly circling papers.

"That sounds great, looking forward to it." Naruto agreed, while a swirling orb of black chakra began to grow in his held out hand.

"And by the way, my friends call me Naruto." Naruto said with a grin.

Only Nagato's face remained visible through the now swirling paper vortex. Naruto saw the man's face break into a smile full of gratitude.

"Ok then Naruto. The same goes to you, call me Nagato." were the red head's final words before the paper vortex, with him in it, flashed out of existence. The only proof remaining that the former Akatsuki pair had been there was the indentations in the ground made by Nagato's machine.

Naruto wasted no time, dropping the two rings on the ground in front of him while raising the now huge spiralling black orb above his head.

"**Oodama Omoi Rasengan!**" Naruto shouted, smashing the mass of spinning chakra into the ground.

* * *

Zetsu was becoming impatient. It had been nearly an hour since the Nine-tails Jinchuuriki walked into the fake tree hiding Nagato and Konan. Zetsu had followed the blonde haired boy from the fight scene and was now waiting for the final outcome.

"For Kami sake Nagato what are you doing in there?!" the white half of Zetsu complained.

There was no doubt in his mind that, somehow, Nagato had lost the fight. It was not his job to interfere though (or be concerned) and was just waiting for the Jinchuuriki to kill the orphan pair and leave so he could collect their rings.

His waiting game was finally over however, signalled by an explosive noise that came from within the massive tree. Zetsu's eyes widened as the huge tree seemed to implode upon itself leaving the entire area invisible through a haze of dust. From where Zetsu was, half in half out of a tree trunk, he couldn't see anything amidst the destruction.

Suddenly a blonde haired, cloaked figure shot out of the screen of dust landing some ten metres away from it. Pausing only for a moment the person, who could only be the nine-tails Jinchuuriki, jumped away at speed in the direction of Konoha.

'So...Nagato actually lost then.' thought white Zetsu without a trace of concern in his voice.

Zetsu sunk with a ripple into the tree he had been hiding in, reappearing where there was now a huge crater where the huge tree had once stood. The dust had cleared somewhat, but there was no trace of Nagato's or Konan's body. Zetsu frowned and tried to sense the pair's ring signals. His eyes widened after a few moments of concentration as he failed to pick up any signal at all.

"_**It would seem**_" the black half of Zetsu murmured in a deep voice. "_**That the Jinchuuriki completely destroyed them both with that attack, including their rings.**_"

"It would seem so." white Zetsu agreed reluctantly, searching one last time fruitlessly. "The boy is more powerful than we had originally planned. Also with Nagato gone more complications have arisen. Leader will not be pleased."

And with that the strange plant man sunk into the ground and disappeared.

* * *

'Shit!' thought Naruto vehemently. 'I used up too much chakra, even for me.'

He was travelling through the forest back to Konoha as fast as he could before his chakra actually did run out. He shuddered thinking of what Tsunade and Sakura would do to him if he fell unconscious now and made them worry about his whereabouts for hours. Naruto felt a warm feeling bubble up in his chest as he analysed what he had just though. Sakura would be worried about him. The thought brought a smile to his lips, which immediately turned into a frown as his vision suddenly fogged up.

'Oh damn...Looks like I won't be able to make it after all' he thought grimacing as unconsciousness claimed him.

'Sorry Sakura, I hope you don't worry too much.' was his last thought as his eyes closed and his world turned black. Unfortunately he had failed to remember that he had been jumping through high rise trees and was now falling from twenty metres in the air.

* * *

The rosette in question was currently trying to calm herself down as she traveled as fast as she could through the forest following Pakkun, Kakashi's tracker dog. After an hour of waiting Tsunade had decided that enough was enough and had sent Kakashi and Sakura to go and find Naruto and bring him back. Everyone, including Sakura, believed wholeheartedly that Naruto had won the fight against Pein. But the pink-haired girl couldn't shake off her feeling of worry concerning her team-mate.

'If he won why has he been gone so long?' was the question that continued to repeat inside of her head.

She mentally tried to discipline herself. What was she doing worrying like this? Naruto had always pulled through no matter what the odds, why was she worrying so much about him now? It seemed as though the thought of not knowing exactly where he was scared her.

She blushed slightly. 'Kami I sound like an old married woman, what's wrong with me?' she thought exasperatedly.

Her internal confusion was interrupted by Pakkun speaking over his shoulder suddenly.

"We aren't far from him now, he scent is getting clearer."

No sooner had the dog when the sound of an explosion came from somewhere nearby. All three of them jerked their heads up in the direction the noise had come from.

"Well that would probably be Naruto." Kakashi said in a happy tone, hiding the fact that he was actually quite concerned about his student.

Sakura hadn't even hear him, she was too busy hurtling towards the origin of the sound. Her breath had rose to a rapid rate and it had nothing to do with her moving fast.

'Please be OK..Please be OK..' she repeated inside her head as she strained her eyes, trying to catch a glimpse of her team-mate through the dense forest.

Suddenly she spotted a cloaked figure hopping across the tree branches towards her. Her face broke into a wide smile as she took in the figure's easily visible bright blonde hair.

"Naru-" she started to shout but was cut off by shock as the fast approaching Naruto suddenly faltered and began to fall head first towards the ground. Sakura's eyes widened for a split second before she put all of her effort into reaching the ground below him for he did. She made it without a second to spare, catching him by tackling him out of the air a metre before he hit the ground.

They tumbled in a tangled mess for a few metres before coming to a stop. Sakura groaned as she sat up, rubbing her head. She realised something was weighing her down and quickly looked towards her lap. When she saw the unconscious Naruto sprawled across her breathing peacefully she threw her arms over his prone body and buried her face in his chest. She knew she probably should have felt embarrassed, especially with Kakashi and Pakkun approaching, but right now she just didn't care. The only thing that mattered to her now was the joy of holding her friend in her arms and seeing that he was OK.

For some reason though, the word 'friend' left a bad taste in her mouth.

* * *

**AN: **Well there's another chapter down. I didn't realise how long the talk between Nagato and Naruto was going to take! Even so I hope you guys enjoyed it. PLEASE review! As always it would mean the world to me:) The next chapter should be finished a lot quicker than this one was and it will be focused around Naruto and Sakura, which I think most of you are looking forward to:P Well thanks again for reading and I hope you'll be back for more.

Have a good one.


	8. Chapter 8 - Hospital

**Saving the world**

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, Kishimoto does blah blah blah...Although I wish I did, I'd love to tweak a few things ^.^

**AN:** I KNOW IT'S BEEN A WHILE PLEASE DON'T HURT ME!

Hi everyone it's me again, It's good to be back! Hope you didn't think I died or something:P I've made you wait quite a long time havn't I? I'm actually truly sorry it's been so much longer than I planned to update. I'm not going to bore you with all the things that have been keeping me from writing. Hopefully all that matters now is I'm back and the story is back on track! Well it never went off the track, it just stopped at a station;) To all the people that have stuck with this story and have waited patiently (or not patitently) for me to update I can't thank you enough, you're amazing. Remember to review, even if it's just a senetence. It really will make my hands type faster:P

Well anyway here's chapter 8, I hope you enjoy it!

**Chapter 8 - **

Naruto was having a strange dream. He was running through a never-ending expanse of trees, trying desperately to find something. He didn't know what he was looking for but he somehow knew he had to keep moving. The light around him suddenly started to dim and the his vision became foggy. He tried his hardest to keep going but within moments his world had become almost pitch black. As his vision receded altogether, he became aware of the sensation that he was falling and gaining momentum quickly. Before he could panic though, something warm wrapped itself around him, halting his fall. Naruto's panic dissipated immediately, he didn't know what he had fallen into but he knew he had somehow found what he had been looking for. Now in a cocoon of warmth, Naruto felt his vision start to come back accompanied by a blinding light. He struggled to at least see what was holding him, fighting the intense light by squinting his eyes. Just for a second he caught a glimpse of a person's face and a flash of pink, before the light swallowed him completely and he was forced back into he realm of consciousness.

Naruto cracked open his eyes slowly, temporarily blinded by the early morning sunlight streaming through an open window. As his eyes slowly adjusted to the glare Naruto became aware of his surroundings, and immediately groaned. The glaring whiteness of the room was, unfortunately, very familiar to him.

'I must have set a record for the most frequent visitor by now or something.' Naruto thought dejectedly, staring up at the white ceiling.

He was, of course, laying in a bed of the Konoha hospital.

'I don't remember getting any injuries though...why I am-' Suddenly Naruto's memories came back to him in a flash; fighting with Pein, talking to Nagato and witnessing his change of heart, faking Nagato's death and running back to Konoha through the woods until...

Naruto frowned. The last thing he could remember prior to waking up was drifting into unconsciousness while jumping through the trees due to chakra exhaustion. Someone must have found him and brought him back.

'So much for coming back with a cool entrance.' Naruto grumbled mentally. He would never admit it, but after having spent years training with Jiraiya, Naruto had unconsciously picked up on some of the old ninja's habits.

Naruto turned his head to look out the open window and smiled. There didn't seem to be anyone moving around in the hospital near his room so it was peacefully quiet. All he could hear was the soft sounds of nature from outside and the faint,distant noises of the village starting up for a new day.

'I haven't been this relaxed in ages.' thought Naruto still smiling contentedly at the tranqulity. 'I wonder how long it'll be before someone comes and ruin-'

"_**IT'S ABOUT TIME NARUTO YOU BRAT!" **_Kurama roared inside the blonde boy's head, shaking his very consciousness.

Naruto grimaced, closing his eyes. 'I guess I walked into that one.' he thought meekly.

"_Good morning to you to _Kurama_. Any particular reason you decided to completely blow my eardrums from the inside out?" _Naruto replied in a sour internal voice. Even though the Kyuubi had willingly told Naruto his real name, he did not like to be called by it unless it was for a good reason. Therefore Naruto only called the fox by his real name when he was being serious or when he was trying to annoy him.

The demon fox chucked slightly, too amused with himself to take offence to being called by his real name so casually. _**"Well I thought it was quite charitable of me to not wake you up from your beauty sleep any earlier than this."**_ he said in a quieter, content voice. _**"Anyway I want to talk to you about some things and now is a perfect opportunity for you to come into your inside world."**_

Naruto smiled slightly. He knew that this was the closest the fox would come to saying that he desired company. When Naruto had first begun to properly converse with the giant creature he had been shocked to discover that the fox could suffer from loneliness just like any other creature, and was suffering from it quite badly. One of the key factors in understanding and stopping the Kyuubi's hate was to rid him of his loneliness, something Naruto had achieved by visiting the demon fox frequently in his inside world. Ever since, whenever Naruto had gone about a week without visiting his inside world the fox would order Naruto to come and see him, usually to talk about training or various things of the like. Naruto always humoured him, after all he himself enjoyed going to his inside world immensely now that it had changed from the dank sewer it once was.

The blonde haired jinchuuriki closed his eyes and repeated the familiar action of detaching himself from the outside world and focussing on the demon fox's chakra inside him. He didn't really fully understand how this worked, all he knew is that by concentrating on nothing but the demon inside him he was able to 'travel' to his inside world.

Naruto opened his eyes a few moments later and was greeted with the sight that still managed to amaze him. His inner world seemed to consist of all the different possible geographical landscapes compressed into one area. Naruto was currently standing in the middle of a huge field positioned on a large, yet very shallow, hill. In the distance, back down on ground level, he could see an large expanse of glittering water. It was a lake he had swam in before, marvelling at the fact that even though he wasn't physically there it still felt perfectly real.

He knew if he looked behind him he would see a huge mountain range on the horizon and that to the left of him was a dense forest, packed with huge, high-rise trees. However, Naruto vision was focussed on the gigantic tree that rose up from the middle of the field. Or more specifically, on the huge orange shape resting in the tree's shade.

Naruto grinned slightly at the sight of the mighty Nine-tailed demon fox, who was feared throughout the land for his ferociousness, curled up like an oversized cat. Naruto traversed the distance between them in a minute or so of walking. As he neared the trunk of the insanely large tree where the demon fox was resting, the Kyuubi lazily opened its eyes, appraising the young man before him.

_**"Well."**_ The fox spoke up without raising his head from its resting place on his paws. _**"For your first proper fight since completing your training, I think it went OK."**_

Naruto's eyebrows rose in disbelief. "You think it went just 'OK'? I totally kicked his ass!" the blonde haired boy exclaimed loudly while punching the air proudly.

Kurama snorted. _**"Yes I guess you did in the end. I will admit that's a been quite a while since I had that much fun. But.." **_Kurama paused for emphasis and continued in a more serious tone. _**"Nothing can be gained from getting complacent and cocky. The man you fought was just as much taken by surprise by your moves as you were by his. Given more time to get used to your attacks he would have eventually been able to gain the upper hand with those eyes of his."**_

Naruto lowered his head in acceptance and moved to sit down on the shady grass a few metres from the giant foxes snout. While Naruto argued with Kurama frequently, when it came to matters such as this he trusted the fox's judgement implicitly. Just like Naruto Kurama knew when it was time to be serious and stop joking around. As Naruto plonked himself down on the soft grass Kurama continued his report.

_**"Also this was your first time using our combined released form. While I'll admit that it is immensely powerful, the repercussions of using it are too high at the moment. While our chakras are basically one entity, to use the released form you still have to call upon large amounts of my chakra and while you have improved exponentially at using my chakra, you are still human. Your body is still damaged when using large amounts of my chakra. The damage is nowhere near what it used to be when I was actively trying to take over your body, but the effects are still there. Think of your released form as an improved version of your four-tailed bijuu cloak that you were using before we came to an agreement. It drains both of our massive chakra reserves incredibly fast; mine to keep the transformation up and yours to prevent my chakra from hurting your body. You ended up in the hospital because after leaving Nagato you passed out from chakra exhaustion."**_

Naruto lent forward and palmed his forehead. "Ughh why does this have to be so complicated!? I thought that my problems would be over once we agreed to pretty much merge chakras." exclaimed Naruto in an exasperated tone. "So you're telling me that I can't use the released form any more because it's too harmful to my body?"

Kurama shook his head slightly. _**"No I'm not saying you cannot use it any more. I'm saying that using it as you are now would not be a good idea, unless you wanted to cause some permanent damage. You will need to improve on your other skills for the time being while we work on a way of making your body able to cope with high quantities of my chakra."**_

Naruto cocked his head to the side. "Why would I need to work on my other techniques, shouldn't I just put all my effort into finding a way to use our released form without it hurting me?" he questioned.

The giant fox grumbled slightly and lightly tapped the blonde haired boy on the head with the flat side of one his claws.

"_**Fool! What if Akatsuki come back soon to try and capture you again? You will be forced into using your released form again and then even if you win your body will be damaged far beyond how it is now. You got off lucky this time because it's the first time you used it in battle. Like I said before, don't get complacent gaki." **_Kurama admonished.

Neither of them spoke for a while after that. Naruto laid down on his back with his hands behind his head, staring up at the branches far above him. Kurama opted to simply stay in the same position with his head resting on his paws and close his eyes. After a few minutes of comfortable silence Naruto spoke up.

"Hey Kurama..."

The demon fox opened his eyes curiously. Naruto only used his real name when he was being serious about something. Naruto took the fox's silence as a cue to continue.

"I've meant to ask you this for quite a while now, but with all the training and traveling I haven't really had the chance. The seal keeping you inside my body is gone right? So what's stopping you from getting out and enjoying freedom? I know you said you wanted to help me and everything, but couldn't you do that without being inside me?" the Jinchuuriki asked in a quiet voice.

Kurama waited for a minute before responding. _**"I won't lie, I've thought about it quite a bit since your father's seal was lifted. It would be nice to feel the real world again through my own body, but I haven't raised the matter for a number of reasons. For the most part, you need my power. Even with it you had to go all out to defeat Pein, and the way Nagato was talking about wanting to make plans it looks like there is going to be much more trouble to come. Secondly, what is the point of living in the real world again? Sure it would be nice for a little while, but apart from the Hachibi there are none of my brothers and sisters left. I would still be hated and hunted and there would be nowhere for me to go. Besides I quite like it here."**_ Kurama finished in a soft voice.

Naruto was silent in thought for a moment. "So if there was a way of you getting out but still being able to come back inside me, you would want that?" Naruto asked.

Kurama's ears perked up slightly. _**"Yes kit I would. But the whole problem is I can't do that. I could leave your body at any point I wanted, but I have no way of getting back inside. It took the Fourth's incredibly intricate seal to get me in here in the first place. What are you thinking kit?"**_

Naruto nodded thoughtfully, his suspicions confirmed. A idea already starting to form in his head, Naruto sat up suddenly turning his gaze to his giant friend.

"Just an idea. Don't get too excited, I have no idea of it'd work yet. Plus I guess I'd better get back to the real world, I don't want people coming in to check on me and thinking I'm in a coma." Naruto said with a quick grin.

Kurama nodded, closing his eyes once again. _**"Very well. Remember what I said about your released form. I know it's pretty hard not to, but if you're training try not to pull on my chakra for a while. It'll quicken the healing process of your chakra coils."**_

Naruto assumed the lotus position and took one last look at the amazing ethereal world around him before closing his eyes. His breathing slowed as he focused his mind on returning to his physical body.

"I'll keep that in mind. See ya fluffball."

Kurama let out an exasperated snort. _**"Goodbye kit."**_

* * *

Naruto opened his eyes slowly, sighing as he took in the dull view of his hospital room for the second time. He frowned slightly as he suddenly realised that he was only clad in his long sleeved black top and trackpants. His eyes ventured around the small room until they widened in dismay at the sight of his cloak. Or more precisely, what used to be his cloak. The tattered remnants of what could hardly be called a piece of clothing anymore were draped over a chair.

'I guess that's another problem I have to deal with.' the Jinchuuriki thought drily. His spare cloak was sealed in a scroll that Jiraiya kept safe, and talking to his perverted mentor was not high on his list of things he wanted to do at the moment. As his senses came back to him he could hear that activities had picked up inside the hospital and someone was clomping down the corridor outside of his room.

'Please don't let it be any of those three, I don't think I can handle them right now and stay calm.' Naruto thought desperately. His heartbeat quickened as there was a brief but loud knock on his door. A moment later the door opened and relief flooded though him. It was Sakura.

"Naruto you're awake!" the pinkette exclaimed happily, coming over to stand by his bed. "You gave us all quite a worry yesterday, but I guess we should be used to this by now." She put one hand on her hip and glared at him accusingly. "You only just got back and you managed to fight your way into unconsciousness!"

As Naruto looked up at his beautiful team mate smiling down at him a mixture of emotions swept through him. Her presence always brought him happiness, especially when she smiled at him; it made his heart flutter. But there was also quite a bit of pain as well. Since he had been back in Konoha it had been harder and harder to be around her without feeling a pang of hurt and jealousy at the fact that she loved Sasuke and not him. And he hated it. It made him feel like he was being selfish and child-like. So he did what he had been doing for the past few days, he tried as hard as he could to push those feelings of attraction and jealousy away.

He swallowed hard as his eyes roamed across Sakura's form. She wasn't making it easy on him at all coming in dressed in her working nurse outfit. The skirt she normally wore out was gone in the place of even shorter shorts that showed off her shapely legs. She had on a t-shirt that hugged her figure nicely and her hair was tied back into a spiky ponytail that, to Naruto, made her look even better. Naruto's gaze was drawn to her bare legs that were dangerously close to his face. He could feel his face heating up before Sakura's voice snapped him to attention.

Sakura herself had been waiting impatiently for Naruto to reply before she took in his slightly red face. She immediately went into full nurse mode and lent forward to put her hand on his forehead.

"Naruto are you OK? I checked you out yesterday and it just seemed like you had a case of major chakra exhaustion, but maybe it's something more. Do you feel sick?" Sakura asked worriedly as she pressed her hand to his forehead and then his cheek.

"Uh I-I'm fine Sakura-chan." Naruto stuttered, much to his own horror, in a Hinata-like fashion. His heart meanwhile had gone into overdrive. Just looking at Sakura had been bad enough but now she was lent over him and touching his face. Naruto felt another part of his body reacting against his will and started to panic. Kurama meanwhile was not helping at all by laughing uproariously inside Naruto's head at the blonde's current predicament. Doing the first thing to distract himself that came to his mind Naruto bit his tongue, trying not to wince in pain.

As Naruto dealt with his misbehaving body, Sakura continued her diagnostic. She frowned as she felt her team-mate's forehead and cheek; they were red but didn't seem to be any hotter than usual. She removed her hand that was on his forehead and placed it over his heart to measure his heartbeat. Her eyebrows shot up in surprise, his heart was beating like a rabbit! Her face contorted as she tried to come to a conclusion of what all this meant.

'What doesn't make sense is that his face is red but not hot. The only thing I can think of is...oh.' she stopped dead as she finally pieced together what was happening.

Sakura had not been working as a medic-nin for the past four years for nothing. She had seen this type of reaction a number of times from some patients, but she definately didn't expect it from Naruto. She glanced at Naruto's face and received confirmation of her theory. He had turned his flushed face away and had seemingly taken exceptional interest in the cup of water on his bedside table. Sakura felt a surge of happiness and pride swell up inside her; _she_ had made him react like this, not anyone else.

"Naruto." she said quietly, trying to get the blonde to look at her. He did slowly, turning his head and finally ripping his eyes away from the cup and meeting hers. As Naruto met her gaze Sakura could feel her own face reddening. Her hands were still resting on his cheek and chest and their faces were close enough together to feel each others breath. As Sakura continued to stare into Naruto's bright blue eyes she felt herself gripping his shirt and moving closer slowly. She tried to gain some control but to no avail; her body seemed to be having a mind of it's own.

'Oh my god what am I doing?! I'm about to kiss Naruto!' she panicked, surprisingly less horrified with the idea than she would have thought.

"**So what? That's a good thing, look how cute he looks! We're gonna have our first kiss, Shannaro!" **Sakura's inner self exclaimed gleefully inside her head.

While forced to agree with her inner demon about Naruto's looks, Sakura still wasn't sold on the idea. She finally forced herself to stop moving forward just as her nose was about to touch Naruto's. She noticed that the room had gotten noticeably hotter and both of them were breathing hard. As she hesitated, Naruto's previous words came back to her.

_"I'm not sure if anyone's told you this before, but you are incredibly, amazingly beautiful."_

Affection surged through her and completely wiped out any doubts she was having. Finally giving into her hormones she slowly closed her eyes and began leaning in to close the final distance.

Naruto, meanwhile, thought he was in a dream. There was no way what was happening right now could possibly be real life. As his pink-haired team-mate paused a few centimeters away from his face his azure eyes widened as a just as wide green pair gazed into his. This was not a dream, this was actually happening.

The bewildered blonde followed his instincts and slowly closed his eyes as his team mate drifted closer.

'I'm actually going to do it.' he thought, dazed. 'I'm really going to kiss-'

_"I said...that I loved him"_

Sakura's previous words crashed through his consciousness, wiping away Naruto's happy daze and obliterating the tender feelings he had allowed to surface.

He opened his eyes quickly and saw his long time crush barely a centimetre away from his face, eye's closed, cheeks pink and lips slightly apart. All he had to do to get what he had always dreamed of was to lean forward. But he didn't.

Naruto closed his eyes tight in a brief moment of pain before he gripped Sakura's shoulders and forced her up and away from him. The pinkette's eyes flew open in shock as she realised what had happened. Hurt flashed accross her face, but before she could open her mouth to say anything the hospital room door opened for a second time, this time admitting Tsunade, Shizune, Jiraiya and Kakashi.

"Good morning Naruto, glad to see you're awake at last." The blond Hokage said with a cautious smile. She had barely spoken to Naruto since his angry outburst the other day and she didn't know if he had calmed down yet. Deciding to try and break the ice first off, Tsunade smirked.

"Sorry for barging in unannounced, did we interrupt something here?" Tsunade asked with a hint of humour in her voice as she noted the proximaty between her apprentice and her foster son. Before Sakura could reply Naruto cut in.

"No. No you didn't. So what's so important that the Hokage herself has graced me with her presence?" asked Naruto in a sarcastic tone.

Tsunade and Sakura mentally winced, both for different reasons.

'Guess he's still upset.' thought Tsunade sadly. 'Though I didn't really expect anything different.' Ignoring Naruto's sardonic reply, she persisted.

"We've come to see how you're doing Naruto, in case you haven't noticed you've just recently had a major battle with the leader of Akatsuki and have been uncounscious for about 18 hours. Congratulations are in order I think." Tsunade said with a slightly forced smile.

Having the extremely unfortunate childhood that he had, compliments meant a lot to Naruto. Having one given to him by the Hokage herself definately put a crack in his current cold outer shell. But only a tiny crack. He was still royally pissed at Tsunade, and even though he wanted to jump up and kiss her for coming into his room when she did, it would still take a lot more than that for him to completely forgive her.

"Thanks." the Jinchuuriki said tightly, looking slightly away from the now quite large group by the foot of his bed. Everyone in the room adopted a sombre look. No one was used to Naruto behaving like this. He was, and always had been, an energetic ball of fun and happiness. Seeing him like this was just seemed...wrong.

It was Jiraiya's turn to speak up this time. "You had us all a bit worried when you ran off to find the source that controlled Pein's bodies brat. Want to tell us what happened over there?" the toad Sannin asked in an unusually calm and pleasant voice.

Though Naruto's face was passive, his mind was working furiously. Though he trusted Nagato and Konan himself, he wasn't so sure about the rest of the people in Konoha, even his closest people. No he would keep his new allies a secret for now, at least until he had had a meeting with the Rinnegan wielder in person. It was against his nature but he was going to have to lie to them. Naruto sneered mentally.

'Well it's not like they can blame me afterwards when they find out. That would be a major case of the pot calling the kettle black. The-'

_**"What?"**_

_"Not now Furball."_

'Back on track...The only one I feel bad about lying to is Sakura.' thought Naruto sadly. Then he remembered the stunt she had pulled a few moments ago and the guilty feeling was quashed as quickly as it had risen.

'What was she thinking..'

Resuming his attention to his 'guests', Naruto kept his expression neutral as he looked Jiraiya in the eye. He was determined to keep eye contact.

"Nothing happened apart from what you probably gathered already. I found and confronted the man controlling Pein. He himself had the Rinnegan, that's how he was controlling Pein's bodies. He was weakened severely from the fight however. I just finished him off." the blonde haired jinchuuriki said in a calm voice.

Despite his best efforts however, he could not pull off the lie faultlessly. Something about looking his beloved sensei in the eyes and lying caused his left eye to twitch momentarily. It was only for an instant, but Jiraiya saw it.

'What's the brat hiding from us?' thought the toad Sannin with a frown. 'More to the point why does he feel he has to hide anything, especially from me? Oh well I trust him to make his own decisions now. I doubt if it was something dangerous he would hide it from me. He'll tell me in his own time. Though that is curious about the Rinnegan wielding man. I wonder if it could have been...maybe it's better not to ask.'

On the outside Jiraiya grinned.

"Well I guess all I can say is well done brat. Your first major fight and you surely did not dissapoint. I'm proud of you Naruto."

Naruto's eyes widened at the praise. Jiraiya rarely praised him seriously and even less often called him by his name. Despite the anger Naruto still felt for his sensei, he felt an immense sense of satisfaction welling up inside at the fact that he had made his teacher proud.

The touching mood was then ruined by Jiraiya being, well, Jiraiya. The Sannin's smiling face transformed into a lecherous grin as he sidled up to Naruto's side and leant in close to his ear.

"And when you get out of here I'll take you out for a real celebration. There's a place not to far from the village where some lovely ladies will be more than happy to 'celebrate' with you. For the right price of course, but your good old sensei Jiraiya will take care of that hehehe-oh shit."

Despite Jiraiya's whispering, everyone in the room heard him easily. Kakashi winced as he saw Tsunade slowly bunch up her fists which were suddenly glowing green. Jiraiya had noticed he predicament when he saw Tsunade glaring at him with a sickly sweet smile on her face. He backpedalled away from her, waving his hands frantically in front of him.

"Listen, Tsunade. I was just joking around! and Naruto's old enough now to-"

"STOP CORRUPTING YOUR STUDENT YOU STUPID PERVERT!" shouted an enraged Tsunade as she swung her fist at the petrified Jiraiya.

However she was beaten to it by her pink haired disciple, who had leaned accross the bed to punch the extremely unfortunate Sannin in the side of his head.

'Well holy shit. Sakura's gotten stronger.' Naruto thought in disbelief as he watched his screaming sensei sail through the hospital window and into the horizon. 'I better remember not to piss her off too much anymore.'

Kakashi and Tsunade turned their incredulous gazes upon the now calming down Sakura.

"What?" she huffed out crossly, meeting their gazes as though assaulting a senior ninja was nothing out of the ordinary. The two teachers continued to stare at her until she was forced to explain herself.

"Well I wasn't about to let him take Naruto to a freaking whorehouse." Sakura blurted out, flustered.

Tsunade raised her eyebrows and Sakura blushed as she realised the implications of what she had just said. She was acting like a jealous girlfriend. Kakashi hid his smug grin underneath his mask and Naruto just decided the best course of action was to take interest in his glass of water again.

After a few moments of silence Kakashi decided to let his student off the hook. He coughed slightly, gaining everyone's attention, and then continued.

"As much as i did come to check up on you and congratulate you Naruto, I came to see you for another purpose. After watching your fight with Pein I've come up with a few ideas and seeing as we havn't really caught up properly yet since you got back, I was wondering if you wanted to join me for a training session?" Kakashi asked with his trademark eye smile.

Naruto was lost for words.

'First Sakura tries to kiss me, then Jiraiya tells me that he's seriously proud of me, and now Kakashi is actually offering to train with me. This morning's been full of surprises.' Naruto thought, gobsmacked. Then his negative side kicked in.

'The again he's probably just sucking up to me to apologise for not telling me about my heritage.' he thought sourly. 'I'll go along with it for now though, I'm interested to see what he's got in mind.'

"Sure Kakashi-sensei that'd be great." Naruto said with a grin. Tsunade and Kakashi instantly eased up; Naruto had a grin back on his face. Only Sakura managed to see that his happy expression was strained.

"In fact I'm feeling pretty great at the moment. I'm ready to go now if you're feeling up to it." Naruto continued while heaving himself up into a sitting position on the side of the bed.

That was a lie as well. In fact he felt extremely average currently, but at that moment he just really wanted to get out of that room. 'Away from Sakura..'

"Well I see chakra exhaustion didn't slow you down for long." Kakashi said, still eye-smiling. "I've just got a few things to pick up first. I'll meet you at training ground 9 in 15 minutes. I would use ground 7 but it's pretty much unusable after your little spar the other day. Ja ne." Kakashi finished before dissapearing in a gust of wind after making the hand seals for a Shunshin.

Now only Naruto, Sakura and Tsunade were left in the small room. Tsunade glanced at her foster grandchild as he attached his shin guards and the rest of his ninja gear. Maybe it was because of the way Naruto was dressed or because of the way his spiky hair framed his face, but for a second Tsunade swore she saw another Namikaze sitting in front of her in the same bed with a serious look on his face, getting physicked up for some serious training.

Tsunade smiled sadly as the vision faded. 'Like father like son, they are so similar its uncanny. It's so sad they couldn't have been together for longer.'

As Naruto stood up Tsunade addressed him very unproffesionaly by crushing him in a monstrous hug. Not really prepared for it Naruto just stood there limply as he was slowly squished to death.

Tsunade gripped him harder, if that was possible, as she put her mouth close to his ear.

"I'm so glad you're okay brat. I missed you so much while you were away. The thought of losing you just as you came back, and while you were angry at me was-" she was cut off as her throat closed up.

Naruto smiled softly as his anger melted away. Even though he still hadn't forgiven her for lying to him, she was still family to him. He still loved her dearly and if her actions were anything to go by she felt the same way. He pulled one of his arms free and rested his hand on the back of her head as Tsunade the Hokage, one of the mighty Sannin, cried softly into his shoulder. He marvelled that he was actually taller than her now and he was the one consoling her. Things had definately changed. Sakura just stood to the side smiling happily at the scene. Despite how much Tsunade had tried to hide it, she knew how much the blonde Hokage had missed Naruto over the years.

After a minute of emotional release, Tsunade decided that was enough. she hurriedly broke free of the hug and wiped her eyes, getting rid of any traces of her weakness. She looked up flushing from embarrassment.

"Well it was good seeing you're okay. Well done again for your efforts. I'll dismiss myself." Tsunade said curtly as she brusquely turned around and walked out of the room.

Naruto stared after her for a moment before chuckling slightly as made his way for the window, god forbid he use the door for once. As he picked up his sword that had been leaning against the wall Sakura spoke up.

"Naruto I-"

"I'm sorry Sakura I've got to leave to meet up with Kakashi now otherwise I'll be late." Naruto said, cutting her off without looking back. Still Sakura persisted.

"About before I'm really-"

"It's okay. You don't have to explain anything." Naruto said, again cutting her off as he fully pulled open the window that already had a Jiraiya shaped hole in it.

"Stop cutting me off! we need to talk abou-"

"It's fine really. Now I really need to-"

"Why did you stop me?"

This time Naruto stopped. He paused for a moment, still not facing her. Sakura waited, unconsciously holding her breath. She wasn't even sure she wanted to know the answer to her question. Hell she didn't even know why she asked it in the first place. All she could think about was stopping him from leaving.

After a few tense moments Naruto finally turned around. Sakura's eyes widened. She had expected him to be angry, furious even. But she had not expected to see the amount of sadness in his dead looking eyes. The usual bright blue orbs were now closer to a sort of dull grey.

"Why do you even have to ask me that question?" Naruto said in a tone that matched his eyes, which were staring straight into Sakura's own green ones.

"W-What do you mean I-"

"You said it yourself Sakura. You've said it countless times. You love Sasuke. You love him and you always have. I don't know why you tried to do that to me before. Maybe because I just came back after four years, or maybe because I could have died in that fight. Whatever the reason all I know is that I had to stop you because you definitely would have regretted it later. You would have come and apologised to me and say you don't know why you did it and it doesn't mean anything because you're in love with Sasuke. And I don't know if I could've handled that." Naruto finished in a quiet voice before grabbing hold of the window frame and jumping out the window, leaving Sakura standing there with her jaw hanging open trying to take in what just happened.

* * *

Ten minutes later Naruto greeted Kakashi as they met in the centre of training ground 9. Naruto hadn't had the opportunity to meet up with Jiraiya to get one of his spare cloaks so he was currently dressed in just a black, long sleeved top and black pants. He had some white bandages wrapped around his waste as a sort of makeshift belt holder for his sword. He had forgone the usual spot on his forehead for his hitai-ate which was now tied lazily around his neck.

"So what did you have in mind for this training session Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto said in a forced happy voice, the events from ten minutes ago swere still fresh in his mind.

If Kakashi noticed the forced joviality he didn't mention it.

"Well it's just a presumption I made while spectating your fight with Pein. I'm not taking away from the fact that you did a brilliant job, but I noticed that you didn't use any elemental jutsus in the fight. Don't you know any?" Kakashi asked curiously.

Naruto scratched the back of his head and grinned. "Naa I don't, I didn't really have much time for learning normal jutsus while I was away training. A lot of the time was spent on tapping the Kyuubi's chakra and learning the basics properly, not to mention perfecting the Rasengan."

Kakashi nodded as though he had been expecting Naruto's answer.

"So would I be correct in saying that you don't know what your affinity is yet?" the masked man asked.

"My what?" Naruto replied in a perplexed voice.

Kakashi grinned, not that anyone could see it, as he reached into his pocket.

"Well this should be fun." He said as he drew out a small piece of paper. "I think it's time to see what your elemental affinity is."

* * *

So that's that! Hope you all enjoyed it and if you have any questions PLEASE feel free to ask me. PM me or just review and I'll get back to you ASAP.

Have a good one.


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